Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mike Hanafin: Toronto Mike'd #1058
Episode Date: May 31, 2022In this 1058th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Mike Hanafin about his years at CFNY and CFRB before he kicks out the jams. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, P...alma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Duer Pants and Shorts.
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Joining me this week, making his Toronto Mike debut,
is Mike Hannafin.
How are you, sir?
Good, and don't call me sir, it makes me nervous.
But how are you doing, Mike?
I'm doing fantastic.
It is my pleasure to be here and to see this greatest use of economical space I have ever seen in my life.
I was wondering where you were going with that.
Because this, when you see this.
Yeah, on the stream, right?
It looks like you've got this massive studio.
And this is like the size of my small little kitchen.
It's fantastic.
It's awesome.
You know, I've heard this from people who, when they finally see this space that they've been seeing on live streams for so long,
in their mind, I guess, you kind of think it's this big studio thing.
And you're right.
It's just a little corner, the last remaining corner in this house.
And I'm doing my best here.
But thanks for those kind words.
And it's nice to meet you.
Let's establish this first.
How do we know each other?
Well, I started listening a lot more to the Humble and Fred podcast during COVID, and
I worked with Fred way back when, in the 80s.
Freddie P.
Fred Patterson.
And so I started listening more, and then you would show up every Thursday, and then
I started hearing, you know, different people from my past,
coworkers, colleagues, friends were showing up as FOTMs. I'm thinking, I know that guy. I know
that guy. And then I just, I went on a binge listen. I went through, you sent me a link.
I contacted you. I'm not sure what it was about. Okay. I probably sent you to the notable guests
page. Yes. Which I maintain. There was something happened though, i probably sent you to the the notable guests page yes which i
maintain there was something happened though that i sent you an email to alert you of something
that i had heard on a podcast and i thought you know what toronto mike would be happy to know
this and i sent you an email do you remember what it was i can't remember it was somebody said
something and i said you know who also knows about that story is x y or z okay and then you
you said uh something about, where are you?
And I said, Vancouver.
And you said, well, next time you're in Toronto, let me know.
Okay.
And we'll hook you up.
And I'm a man of my word.
And you are.
Because here you are.
Okay.
So you normally live in Vancouver.
Right.
How long you lived out west?
Since 2005.
That's a long time.
Okay.
And you're going to die out there, right?
You have no plans to move.
After four days of driving in this traffic,
you will not see me living in this town again.
If you bought a bike, you would love it here.
I ride a bike everywhere
in Vancouver. That's why you
hate driving. If I go
somewhere on vacation or something, and I've got to
drive everywhere, I suddenly hate
it. But it's not that. It's just because I don't
have my bike. I actually just hate
the fact that I don't have my bike. No, that actually just hate the fact that I don't have my bike.
Yeah.
No, that's it.
I'm driving.
I'll drive more this week, uh, visiting different people visiting my mom.
Then I'll drive most of this entire year. So is this trip to Toronto, is this to visit your mom?
It's mostly, you know, that's the prime reason of coming out here is to visit my mom who
is in a long-term care facility.
And I guarantee you, she will never hear this uh but she's in a long-term care facility and i'm visiting her uh every day
in the morning and i'm probably going to stop and see her on the way um downtown after this because
you're going to the jays game i'm going to the jays game tonight okay you're a good son i am the
oldest and greatest but um that's debatable My brother is doing the bulk of the heavy lifting right now
because he lives here.
Right.
I did a lot of things for my mom when I was younger,
and then I moved after she was healthy and everything was good.
She gave me her blessings.
I moved and never looked back, but I come back once a year.
Okay, so there's so much ground I want to cover.
Firstly, we are going to kick out the jam,
so we're going to play 10 songs. We're going to talk about the jam so we're going to play 10 songs we're going to talk about that but also along the way the journey we're going
to take we're going to get to know you better and you're connected this is similar to last friday
when no two fridays ago when blair packham dropped by because he said he had so many connections to
fotm he had to share them all coincidentally one of them was to Andrew Crystal, who passed away the next day.
I'm sad I never met that man.
Our paths didn't cross.
Of course, I liked him because he's a character and interesting,
and I'm a big fan of interesting.
But he was also super fucking weird.
So, I mean, I don't know.
He's not everybody's cup of tea when you meet him in person.
Neither am I, though. Well, it's too early for me to judge. But I I don't know. He's not everybody's cup of tea when you meet him in person. Neither am I, though.
Well, it's too early for me to judge, but I will let you know.
But shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of this community since 1921.
Okay.
So anytime we mention a dead person, we'll do that.
And by the way, Mark Weisblot's my guest on Thursday.
I know.
So we have a full memorial segment.
Have you ever heard a Weisblot episode of Travelling?
I listen to every one.
Okay.
Three hours each.
And you have to make a commitment to that.
But I, you know,
there's a guy
I'd never heard of before
and all of a sudden
I'm listening and going,
wow, this is a,
this is a different
type of guy.
But it all, you know,
it's just,
it's entertaining.
Yes.
And the,
it's interesting,
just like Crystal,
interesting and entertaining.
And, and the, and the shout outs to different various people. And he, he's interesting, just like crystal, interesting and entertaining. And, um, and the,
and the shout outs to different various people.
And he,
he's a,
like an encyclopedia of stuff that I was not aware of.
So good for him.
Yeah.
I bet you,
he would know your career,
uh,
without needing any,
uh,
help.
I,
I would actually be shocked if he did.
Well,
I'll find out Thursday.
We'll soon find out.
Won't we?
Cause he,
I know he reviews your shows.
Yes. Like he'll just drop in all of a sudden. Well, won't we? Because I know he reviews your shows. Yes.
Like he'll just drop in all of a sudden.
Well, that's the thing.
I mentioned that Blair Packham from Two Fridays Ago.
But in that episode, Packham did a great Wise Blot impersonation.
That I can't do.
Went in depth into the Mark Wise Blot episode.
So my feeling on the Wise Blot is that those who like that, like it a lot.
Because you don't get that anywhere else.
I personally, the reason I give it three hours a month is because i personally love that so here you go the mic's open go nuts
but this is the hannifin the 90 minutes of mike hannifin and you of course i know you have notes
there because you're always prepared oh yeah did you want to start with an fotm connection and then
we'll start kicking out jams and then i'll play clips of you and we'll do different connections.
What's the best approach for you?
I'll go with you.
You're the running man of the show,
but at the same time,
I just finished having lunch
with an FOTM.
Okay, which FOTM
did you have lunch with?
Chris Mayberry.
Yes, Maybow.
Maybow.
I just had lunch
and it was a good timing
because I could review
some of the old stories
that we both were there for.
So you told him
you were coming over.
I absolutely did.
And he said hi. He didn't have that pleasure.
He said hi on behalf of him.
He said, just please tell Mike I said hi.
And anybody else that might be out there that knows Chris,
just a gem of a man.
Oh, what a small world.
Okay, so of course, you can only have lunch.
On this visit to visit your mom here in Toronto,
you can only have lunch with FOTMs.
Let's do this one off the top
because I alluded to her yesterday
when I had Tork Will Campbell of the Stars on the program.
And Tork, of course, he's a member of Stars,
a founding member,
which is one of Rosie Ferguson's favorite bands of all time.
I went to high school with Rosie before she was a Ferguson.
Let's begin by telling
the FOTMs, how are you connected to the original co-host of Toronto Mike, Rosie? Well, after the
fame part of my career at the CFNY and different things like that and CFRB, I ended up going into
TV in the background. I worked at TSN as a writer, producer, blah, blah, blah. I worked my way up the
ladder. And then I left there to go work at the Weather Network as a writer, producer, news writer,
producer.
And Rosie worked at the Weather Network as a coordinator.
She was like the most important person in that newsroom.
She was the straw that stirred the drink.
Everything went through Rosie.
And Rosie and I hit it off immediately.
I could make her laugh.
She could make me laugh.
And Rosie has a great laugh.
Yes.
And what I would do, I'd be, you know, working away and typing something,
and I would mutter something reasonably funny.
And about five seconds later, in the office down the hall,
Rosie would just burst out laughing.
And we'd just have fun.
Yeah, but I groomed her to laugh at mics.
There you go.
She was already kind of ready to laugh at mics.
I didn't know that.
So now you've deflated my...
But I'll tell you, one of my favorite Rosie stories was when she got engaged.
Because she had been...
Is it Rob, right?
No, it's Scott.
Scott.
Sorry, sorry.
Sorry to all the Robs out there.
But Scott...
Could have been a Rob.
She'd been dating...
Anyway, so I knew...
Yeah, they met at Ryerson now.
She really wanted.
Or Toronto Metropolitan University.
She really wanted to be engaged and everything.
And one day, I'm in the office and I'm writing away.
And the door opens and a hand comes through the door.
With a ring?
With this enormous rock.
Wow.
And this hand just sits there.
And then she opens the door and everybody
applauds.
Okay.
You ready for a mind blow?
You ready for a mind blow?
There you go.
So this, this, uh, the man who, you know, was lucky enough to marry, uh, Rosie, his
name is Scott Ferguson and you're connected to another FOTM, not that guy, but a guy named
Scott Ferguson.
Yeah.
Scott Ferguson was very important in the very early parts
of my career
because when I was at Humber,
I astutely made connections
with all the major sportscasters
in the city
as part of a project
for Humber College,
the radio program.
And Scott,
I interviewed him
and he thought,
you know,
you'd be a good guy
to get in here to intern.
So I became an intern ckfh
that's foster hewitt the old ckfh this would be about 1980 okay and i worked um i'd go in once
or twice a week and i would write the sports casts 30 second sports cast for the newscasters
to read at the end of their news and i would write this is 14 30 14 30 and they would give me that
little assignment and i did okay wow and then so i did did that. I was, and, and Scott took me to a few
assignments. He, I was interning and he showed me around. He, he, the thing about Scott was that he
imparted on me the most was professionalism. That guy was a pro. He was professional integrity
and he did everything the right way and he taught me a
lot of the things the right way so anyway so that and that led to my first radio job because i went
into intern one day and i'm just in there you know interning and larry silver was the news director
he says hey you come here and he calls me into his office and he says, our station, our telemedia station in Stratford has a junior newsman job open. Are you interested? I said, yes. And he says, he hands me
the phone and it's Doug Lester on the other end saying, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And are you
interested in what's your background? Blah, blah, blah. And I had been a sportscaster on the radio
stations in the college thing. And so they said, well, come on out next Monday. We'll interview you.
Drive out to Stratford.
Drove up to Stratford, got the job, and I was in the radio.
And you're, okay, off and running.
Lots of stuff there.
Was Hebsey ever at CKFH?
Not when I was there.
Oh, he was at when it was Metro 1430.
Yeah, I never was aware of Hebsey until Sportsline.
Until Sportsline.
Gotcha.
Okay, just trying to connect some dots to other FOTMs
if I can.
Sad news.
I don't want to make it sound
like he passed away.
Still with us.
Go, Scott, go.
But Scott's not doing
particularly well these days,
I'm told.
He did reveal on my show
that he was battling,
I think it was Parkinson's.
Yeah, I listened to that episode
and I was so happy to hear
he was, you know, doing okay.
Yeah.
But understanding that he did have some health concerns. What is the term? Progressive. So this doesn't get better. to that episode and I was so happy to hear he was, you know, doing okay, but understanding
that he did have some health concerns.
What is the term?
Progressive.
So this doesn't get better.
It only gets worse.
And I hope he hears this and I hope he hears a shout out because I just, I admire the hell
out of that guy.
The voice of my youth, along with Tom and Jerry, was Scott Ferguson.
Oh yeah.
And, and by the way, are you friendly with, well, we've lost the great Tom Cheek, of course,
but you friendly with Jerry Howard?
I, I, I, I'll send him a note every once in a while, but I'll tell you a great story about Jerry Howard. I'm in Stratford. with uh well we've lost the great tom cheek of course but you friendly with jerry howard i i i
i'll send him a note every once in a while but i'll tell you a great story about jerry howard
yeah i'm in stratford okay and i'm you know junior newsman sportscaster and i'm doing baseball games
the local um senior baseball team is it like the is that where like the toronto maple leafs play
international baseball league exactly okay and it was the stratford Hillers. And so I got to do
play-by-play and color with
an older guy named
Clark Heyman. He was the local
yokel sportscaster. You know, every
town has one, and he was it.
Like Les Nesman?
But way louder.
Like Clark didn't need this microphone.
He was easily heard. Anyway, Clark
was fantastic. But anyway, so Clark and I did games, and I sent a reel to reel of a tape to Jerry.
Just, just an air check.
Okay.
And Jerry sent me a detailed analysis type typed.
Right.
With complete like ending by ending analysis of what was good,
what needed work,
this, that, and the other thing.
And, you know,
the kindest man
you could ever ask for.
What a sweetheart.
Unbelievable.
And then I, you know,
so I thanked him profusely
and it turned out
I was not cut out
for that kind of thing.
But it was still
a great experience.
And then years later,
I'm back in Toronto
and in the same press box
as Jerry Haworth.
Okay, so let's get
you to CFNY here before we kick
out your first jam. How do you get the gig
at CFNY? And again,
kudos to Fred on this one.
FOTM Fred Patterson. But I'm also not
without some
smarts. So,
I'm in Stratford and I have every other
weekend off and I decided
I would come back to the city to see mom and see friends.
And one year the Argos were playing.
This would be 83, the fall of 83.
Okay.
And they won the great cup in 83.
But yeah, but yeah, it was probably the fall of 83 near the end of the season.
So I had a weekend off and I arranged to get a press pass to go and sit in the Argo press box.
So I go and I'm walking down the corridor to go and sit in the argo press box so i go and i'm walking
down the corridor behind an exhibition stadium in the football press box and walking towards me is
fred patterson and i knew fred from his mustache from when i was in college and i had introduced
myself and made my him aware of me okay he sees me and he goes oh mike great to see you uh listen we just got approved to hire a sportscaster
in march wow so get me a tape and i went oh i just happened to have a tape and i reached into
my pocket and i handed him a cassette always be prepared always be prepared handed him a cassette
and he was kind of taken aback by it but whatever he took the cassette i had two in my pockets in case you know you never know but i gave him one and i got a phone call the next monday we love your tape
i want and he says i want you to record the next time you are on the air which was 12 30 sports on
monday that day record that and send it to me courier it we'll pay for it and i did and i got
a call from him like three or four days later
saying when are you back in town i said into in a week or two weeks my weekend off next time you're
coming stop by the radio station we want to talk to you marsden wants to talk to you marsden and
so i got more dressed up than i normally would and i drove straight to the uh the house on kennedy
road right not the house the building the strip Right. Not the house, the building.
The strip mall.
They had moved in over Spanky's or whatever the heck it was underneath.
And I got an audience with David Marsden and Fred, and it went well.
And, you know, I was a fan of the station.
I knew the station.
I knew the-
And we're in about 84?
This would be the fall of 83 still.
Okay, gotcha.
And then I remember sitting there, and we were talking about 84? This would be the fall of 83 still. Okay, gotcha. And then I remember him sitting there,
and we were talking about this and that and the other thing,
and Marsden turns to Fred and goes,
I like that guy.
He didn't say it that way.
I can't do a David Marsden imitation.
I like that.
I like that guy.
David Mars.
I think we should hire him.
And Fred said, that's it.
And it was done.
And I started in March of 84.
Okay, let's hear a little bit of you on CFNY.
You would have been asked for a saliva test a month ago
if you had predicted the Leafs would be within two games
of sweeping a series to reach the NHL semifinals.
But sometimes truth is stranger than fiction,
and the word sweep has started springing up.
No question, if the Leafs keep getting unbelievable goaltending from Ken Reget,
if their power play and penalty-killing units continue to play so well,
and if they play with the same discipline they showed in Game 2,
then maybe, just maybe, the Leafs can take it.
Stranger things have happened, but not many.
Leaf forward Steve Thomas is a bit reluctant to admit it, but he is thinking sweet.
I don't know. It's still going to be tough.
There's still two tough games left, and they're a very physical team.
I think going back to Toronto and our home fans,
it's going to be great.
Our home fans are unbelievable now, and I think we have an edge.
There's a possibility we could go four straight.
With the Leafs, this is Mike Hennepin, CFNY Sports.
And my first reaction is, what an idiot.
Because that was in Detroit.
That was a playoff series, I think 86 or 87.
And they went into Detroit and won the first two games.
Right.
And then they start, and they were talking sweep.
We didn't talk sweep.
They were talking sweep.
No one talks sweep when you're up 2-0.
Nobody does that.
And they did, and they lost in seven.
And they didn't, I don't think they scored a goal in the last three games or two games.
Right.
And I remember Brophy was trying to keep, Brophy was the coach, and Brophy was trying to.
He was going to have Jack Demers, right?
That's that series.
This is a famous exchange they have on the benches.
They hated each other.
Yes.
Okay.
But Brophy's trying to keep them calm.
Like, don't talk sweep.
You're idiots.
They got all these good players.
I think we swept.
This is back in the first round at that time.
It was a best of five, not a best of seven.
And we swept the Blackhawks in three.
And then we went, yeah, we went seven games of Detroit.
I think we got beat.
What an unbelievable series.
And this will lead to something a little later on when we kick out the jam.
Okay, awesome.
So maybe get you out of cfny then get
to the first jam here i'm just towing you along here but there's lots more why do you leave cfny
in 88 and then we'll just tell more cfny stories as we go so i have my four years at cfny and i
you know having a great time i'm 24 when i started there right i'm way too immature but you know they
took a chance and fred again took a chance on me and gave me lots of leeway.
I started on weekends.
I did weekend sports, and I was a reporter three days a week.
And then Fred started thinking, well, you know what?
I don't want to do a split shift anymore
because he was doing mornings and afternoons.
So he convinced somebody there that I could do afternoons three days a week.
So I started doing the afternoons with James Baby Scott.
The late great.
The late great.
Rest in peace.
And so I did the afternoons, I think, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then all day, Saturday, Sunday, with another person who's just passed away, Peter Goodwin.
Wow.
He was the newscaster.
And his wife was just on episode 1021, right?
Liz Janik.
Yeah, such a nice person.
Okay, so where do I go with this?
Did you know working with James Baby Scott that that was David Marsden's brother?
Yes, I did.
Okay.
I never knew what was no and when.
And again, everybody there, it was such an unbelievable place to work because everybody's different.
There's people coming from all over the place and I'm sports.
I'm like the lowest, you know, on the totem pole.
Although I was immature enough to think I was, you know, more important than I was,
but everybody was so welcoming and so supportive.
Like I would do the sports with James Scott on, on his show.
Right.
And he was just right into it.
And he was so encouraging and different things like that.
And I also got to work with Pete and Geetz when Fred would go on vacation.
So if Fred wasn't there because he had his vacation time, you would do sports.
Would you do it with Mike Stafford?
Yes.
So he'd do news.
Yeah.
So tell me a little bit, like, what was it like?
What was Mike Stafford like back then?
And then tell me about Pete and Geetz.
Mike Stafford may have been the most intelligent person I've ever met when it talks about you're talking about brain power different just oh yeah he's a
smart guy unbelievably talented person who can do voices and do this and do that he used to make all
those fake phone calls uh in pretending he was british or pretending he was something else right
and uh but but mike also knew how to crack me up He cracked me up on the air one time.
I'm doing the sports, and he's sitting in the booth next to me.
And Woody Hayes, the former legendary Ohio State football coach
who was fired for punching an opposing player,
he got fired, famously.
He passes away that morning.
And somebody hands me the BN copy the legendary coach right near the end
of my sportscast and I read it
and as I'm reading
I just got this in legendary
sports football coach
Woody Hayes has passed away
and
Stafford pretends to punch me
and I cracked
up reading an obit
wow shout out to Ridley Fun funeral home that's a tough time to
crack that was not my finest hour but that's the kind of thing mike liked to do he liked to get
people to laugh sometimes uncomfortably but it was still fun now i never met pete he passed away
before i could start this project but i did meet geats uh why don't you tell us about well pete
yeah again super
welcoming i'm nobody right and they come in they have me come into their show they do a thing every
morning at 8 10 yeah they used to call it the 8 10 sports floater where fred would come in and just
you know shoot the shit with about the jays or the leafs or whatever and they just talk about
different things and they would have me do that and And I remember one time, they got sidetracked with some other thing going on.
And I went in, and then nothing happened.
They just waved me away.
So I go back to my desk, and I'm typing away to get ready for my 8.30 sportscast.
And the phone rings.
And it's Pete.
And I answered, and I went, oh, is this the 8.10 sports floater?
And they laughed laughed and they cracked
up laughing but yeah pete was fantastic he was so such a pro and such a magical uh broadcaster
at at just creating this aura and everything else and pete and geats were such a pair they also
caught on early that i had a hair trigger laugh. And so Geetz one time decided he was going to crack me up on the air.
And because this is not a PG-rated show, I can tell this story.
So I'm reading my sportscast, and Geetz is standing in front of the little window,
and he's pretending to do himself.
And he's trying to get me to laugh
so i i put my head my eyes down and i got my hands over i'm trying to shield don't look don't look
don't look and then i just peeked up and geats had taken a glass of water and sprayed it on the window
and i just lost it sure and that made their. Did you listen to them when they were on Shum FM?
Absolutely.
So I was in awe.
I got to work on the same air. Like after listening to them for such a long time,
I'm working with Pete and Keith.
Wow.
And I was like part of the family.
It was amazing.
Okay.
So in 1988, I actually have this audio.
Yes.
What happened in 87, late 87, Fred calls me and he says, listen, they're cutting all the budget and they're completely blowing out the newsroom and you're going to be laid off.
And so I said, oh, you know, that's devastating.
I just bought a condo.
I wasn't making a ton of money anyway.
But anyway, so, but Fred.
How much were you making?
Statute of limitations.
Probably 18.
18. Okay. Maybe. I'm going to find out. What was a bag of milk at that time? Whatever. anyway but anyway so but fred how much were you making uh statute of limitations probably 18 18
okay now uh i'm gonna find out what was a bag of milk at that time so anyway but to his credit and
again fred fantastic he said i am not happy about this this is ridiculous blah blah blah blah he
says here's what we can do yeah we you can take four months severance right now a check or you
can stay on the air for four more months to march 31st and we'll pay you
we'll help you with tapes we'll help you with this and that and i said i'll take the four months
yeah because i got to stay on the air right it was like a four month audition tape for anybody
else that wanted to you know maybe hire me which turned out to lead to my next job. But anyway, so what you have is my final broadcast.
Okay.
Now, I like these old, like, I like listening to a sportscast from 1988.
Like, I enjoyed hearing that, you know, will they sweep up to nothing.
So, I'm going to, it's longer than, you know, I'm going to play it in its entirety because
I dig it.
It's, in those days, I could do a four and a half minute sportscast.
Unbelievable when you think about it.
And that's, I mean, this is my, you know.
Nobody does that anymore.
No, no, no, no.
No, no, no.
But let's listen to how you sounded in March 1988.
And here with sports, Mike Hannafin, a presentation of Labatt's Blue.
Well, Rick, the Blue Jays were whipped 8-2 by Pittsburgh today at Dunedin
in what was supposed to be their final game in Florida.
However, the weekend games in Denver are now a question mark. It snowed in Denver last night. The Jays were supposed to play two games
there against Minnesota at Mile High Stadium. If the weather in Denver doesn't improve, then the
Jays and Twins will play Saturday and Sunday in Orlando, Florida. There's also an intra-squad
game tomorrow morning at Grant Field. Todd Stottlemyre will pitch against Syracuse.
If Stottlemyre doesn't pitch well,
those could be his new teammates.
The Jays still have to cut one more
pitcher before opening day.
In today's game, John Cerruti was roughed
up for seven hits, six runs in just
four innings, and Bob Shirley
finally gave up his first run of the spring
in relief. Not much to cheer
about for Jays fans. George Bell played left field, drove in his 13th run of the spring in relief. Not much to cheer about for Jay's fans.
George Bell played left field, drove in his 13th run of the spring,
tops in the club, and rookie catcher Pat Borders went three for four.
The Leafs are in Detroit as we speak, probably just arrived,
and Miroslav Freacher is with the team.
Freacher showed up at practice this morning after going missing yesterday for personal reasons, says Freacher.
John Brophy says Freacher has been fined today's pay, but will dress for the final two games of
the season against Detroit tomorrow and Saturday night. However, you can bet if Brophy is still
with the Leafs next year, Freacher won't be. Biggest game of the night in the NHL, New Jersey
at Pittsburgh, the loser out of the playoff race the winner moves into a tie with the rangers for the final playoff spot in the patrick
former world snooker champ cliff thorburn of toronto faces a heavy fine and lengthy suspension
big story even a possible lifetime suspension after testing positive for cocaine at a tournament
last month in britain you don't want to bury the man, but already,
fellow Canadian Kirk Stevens has had his career ruined by coke.
The stench surrounding professional boxing in Ontario continues to get worse.
Today, the Ontario government relieved Clyde Gray of his duties as Ontario Athletics Commissioner reassigned him.
This after Gray admitted to letting as many as 40 unlicensed or underage boxers fight in Ontario over the last few years.
Gray, a former pro boxer and a good one, admitted to bending the rules a little bit to help keep boxing alive in the province.
Good intentions, say some, but the government says the safety of boxers should be their primary objective,
not keeping the sport alive, and there are many people who don't think the sport should be kept alive
at the pro or amateur level.
The Ottawa Rough Riders have signed quarterback Art Schliester,
the former Ohio State All-American,
was kicked out of the NFL two years ago for repeated gambling incidents.
Just yesterday, he filed for bankruptcy with reported debts of almost $1 million.
But apparently, Schliester has kicked the gambling habit
and will try to resurrect his career in the CFL.
Coming out of university, Schliester looked like the perfect CFL quarterback,
good passer, and even better runner.
The Riders, of course, need all the help they can get.
And at 5.41, that's sports.
Four Labats, Blue, my final sportscast at CFNY after four years.
Whatever the circumstances, I enjoyed doing the sports here.
I hope you enjoyed listening to me.
Hopefully you will hear me or see me somewhere very soon,
whether after this.
And now, Blue Jays Fever, brought to you by the...
So now, a little funny thing about that sportscast.
Now, normally, the newscaster, Rick Charles, who was the news director,
would leave the booth while I was doing the sports
and then come back after the commercial.
He stayed in the booth the whole time I was there,
and it unnerved me a bit near the middle
because I thought he was staying there in case I might say something.
Oh.
And I didn't say anything untoward.
I just did professional.
Well, you don't have to burn bridges.
No, of course not.
You're a young man.
Professional and everything else. But he stayed in the booth, professional. Well, you don't want to burn bridges. No, of course not. You're a young man. No, professional and everything else.
But he stayed in the booth.
And I was like, he never stayed in the booth.
So I really think he was waiting.
He was just ready to, you know, in case I said something like,
I'm just going to take this job or whatever and burn down the building.
Wow.
Okay.
No chance I would do that.
That's a fun fact right there.
All right, my friend.
So on this note, before you end up at CFRB and we have some more stuff to talk about,
could we kick out a jam?
Sure.
Now,
you sent them in an order of a list.
I play it from top to bottom,
right?
You can do anything you want.
Oh,
okay.
Well,
then I'm going to play it from top to bottom.
Because you mentioned Detroit
and if you want to do the...
Oh,
I know which one to do.
Okay.
So a band from Detroit
you want me to play?
No.
Oh.
No.
Public Enemy.
Okay.
Because I have a story about this.
Well,
let's do this.
So, Mike Hannafin, are you ready to kick out the jam?
I am.
Definitely.
My band right here.
And you got to interview Chuck D.
It's hard to listen to this without rhyming over it, but I'm going to show some great
restraint. out a hooligan. I rock the party and clear all the madness. I'm not a racist priest to teach the
office. Cause some, they never had this. Number one, never want to run about the gun. I wasn't
licensed to have one. The minute they see me, fear me. I'm the epitome of public enemy. Used,
abused, without clues. I refuse to blow a fuse. They even had it on the news. Don't believe the Shout out to FOTM Chuck D.
Talk to me.
You interviewed Chuck D.
Just blew my mind.
That was awesome.
I met Flavor Flav in Detroit in that playoff series in an elevator.
Wow.
I'm waiting for the elevator to go down to the lobby for breakfast
and the elevator opens and there are two people in the elevator this tall gentleman black gentleman
in a three-piece suit in a briefcase and flavor flavor and i see him and i'm the whitest guy in
detroit and i the flick and it opens up and i go flavor flame right and he's like oh my god did
he have a clock and I asked him okay I asked him I flavor flame oh my and he's like oh I said
slave where's where's your clock and he goes and I can't do his I can't do an imitation that well
oh no man that's my stage gear right he wasn't wearing a clock, so I am told I have 20 minutes of Chuck D,
but I got to get my ass to the C&E bandshell.
So I actually put all of my studio in a box.
I put it in my bike trailer.
I biked to the C&E grounds.
I sat up in a room in the back.
Okay?
By the way, shout out to Mishimi,
who was on the stage that I watched Mishimi with her DJ,
who's also a FOTM DJ.
Nice. Nice.
Okay.
Now, but one minute before I'm going to start recording with Chuck Deak,
which might as well, it'd be like if you told Freddie P
he was getting an interview with Paul McCartney.
Okay, that's what we're talking about here.
The woman he worked with, I don't know if she was a PR person or what,
but she says to me, okay, you can ask him anything,
but you can't ask about Flavor Flav, okay?
Of course I'm going to ask him about Flavor Flav,
but now I've got this rule,
which I don't really work this way.
You told me I didn't have any rules.
I don't work with rules.
So now I've got 20 minutes with Chuck D,
and I can't ask him the big question I want to ask him.
Where's Chuck?
Because he was there with Public Enemy Radio,
because Chuck D was, I mean, sorry,
Flavor Flav wasn't there.
Okay. Long story short is i found a way to get him to introduce the flavor
question so you're an expert yeah i but that's like that's a one shot you got 20 minutes which
i'm used to having like 90 minutes you got you interviewed chuck d i know it was great it was
great i loved it so much i loved it so much and i know he wanted i think we started talking Raptors at the end because he's a big NBA guy.
And Raptors had just won the championship.
And then I got the sign from the same woman, this wrap-up sign.
And I'm like, but he wants to talk to me.
I was like, lady, he wants to talk to me.
But anyway, I loved it.
I love this song.
I love this album.
Me and Kareem, my neighbor neighbor were blasting public enemy just this past weekend
outside and again i'm listening to that and i know every lyric from this song don't believe the hype
from it takes a nation of millions to hold us back and i i mean i'm like i said i'm the whitest
guy ever but i love this stuff and i did but white people love public enemy yeah and and uh and maybe
later on we'll hear some other stuff. But Public Enemy is just awesome.
Driving music.
And it's not driving music for everybody.
For me, I love putting this on when I'm driving.
Yeah, and I like putting it on Public Enemy when I'm biking.
But I always stick to the first four albums.
So I like Yo Bummer's The Show.
Even though no one ever talks about it, I love that album.
It Takes a Nation of Millions and Fear of a Black Planet
are two of the greatest hip-hop
albums in the history of the world, but
I also love Apocalypse 91,
The Enemy Strikes Black. And I am not
an encyclopedia of public enemy.
My friend Caleb, back
in Vancouver, who put me on to
the depth of
the whole thing, so I owe
a lot to him about my interest in this.
Shout out everyone
early and often.
Okay, so
we're going to let Flav
take us home here
and then I'm going to roll
right into
another one of your jams,
which is very different.
Very.
Don't worry. Flavivision ain't blurry. You know what I'm sayin'? But the S-1s are straightenin' it out quick and fast in a hurry.
Don't worry, the flavor vision ain't blurry.
You know what I'm sayin'? Don't terminate X!
Don't, don't believe, don't believe the high.
Don't, don't believe, don't believe the high.
Don't believe the high.
Don't believe the hype Good Don't believe the hype Good Don't believe the hype
Good
Don't
Don't believe the
Don't believe the hype
I wanna get myself a Cadillac
One that's really slick
I'll be driving through your country
I'll be picking up body checks
Well, top down
In the sun
I want to have fun
Well, top down The way I bought this car To improve my chances I want to have fun I'm tied down
The way I thought this
Caught through my chances
Teenage Head.
What a band.
And such a great CFNY band.
I saw them when I was in college all the time.
They played every pub that I was ever at.
And the Blind Duck, the Humber College Pub,
they played all over the place.
And they had a legion of followers.
And then they were on CFNY.
And it was just like so great.
And then I remember as a kid calling Chum FM constantly.
There was a campaign to get them on Chum FM.
And Chum FM resisted and resisted.
Wouldn't play their first album.
When they started, they played their second album and they tried to call it a debut album.
They wouldn't play their first album. the first album was awesome wow and then i saw you know and i ended up seeing
the band in 2008 in vancouver and the great one of the greatest nights ever for me i saw rush
at the arena okay play their uh tour snakes and ladders tour and then up the street at the vogue or
wherever it was the review teenage head in back to back that night and i had a chance to talk to
gordy lewis during the intermission talk to him i introduced myself and he remembered who i was
from cfny and i remember i never forget he goes i said i'd gone to the Rush and he says oh Rush played tonight?
oh it's
too bad they couldn't
come up and watch us
and I'm like
yeah
Rush is not coming
to the review
no but they'll go
to the Jays game
and he's getting
Lee will be there
and again
just
we'll play some Russian
a little bit
but yeah
I saw two bands
and then shortly after that
Frankie Venom
passed away
oh my goodness
okay
love it love the variety we're getting here off the bat a couple of jams deep and then shortly after that, Frankie Venom passed away. Oh my goodness. Okay. Love it.
Love the variety we're getting here off the bat.
A couple of jams deep, eight more great ones to go.
But so when you leave CFLY, how did you get the gig at CFRB?
Well, I'd been heard.
They knew I was a, you know, kind of a known quantity.
And almost immediately I get a phone call from Fred Locking,
one of their sportscasters, saying,
listen, you're going to be available.
We've got some reporting stuff.
There's some Jays games we can't cover with our staff.
They had four sportscasters, and we don't have enough people.
Because CFRB was doing sports morning, afternoon, evening.
Can you name the four? It was Bill Stevenson, Daveave quinn fred locking and pat marsden in those days
really yeah pat marsden was the he would do afternoons stevenson would do the mornings
and then quinn and fred locking split the evenings and then weekends also and so you know there were
all these jays games that had to be covered quinn just passed away, right? Dave Quinn passed away just recently.
Like this month.
Yes. And what an unbelievably fantastic guy.
And I'm so sad that he passed away.
He was such a funny, funny, funny man.
His sense of humor never really totally made it to the air.
He was way funnier off the air.
He was still funny.
I'm sure.
I'm certain he'll be referenced again
in the
ridley funeral home memorial segment on thursday oh my god he just like he boomed the crap out of
anybody in the room but back to just for a moment pat marsden yep he uh would have would then i guess
several years later would uh no few years later would would show up at the Fan 590 with John Derringer.
Oh, yeah.
Any news about him lately?
I seem to remember somebody saying something about him.
That might also come up on Thursday.
That'll probably come up very much.
Did you ever meet him?
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
He would show up in the press box every once in a while, and he was very nice to me.
But my rule is I believe women.
I believe the women.
End of that period and stop.
Full stop.
Okay.
Do you want to hear a little of yourself on CFRB doing evening sports in February?
Sure.
It evolved.
I was doing a lot of reporting on Jay's games,
and I would call in voicers and pregame voicers and this and that.
And then, you know, occasionally when people would be on vacation,
they would need somebody to read.
Because CFRB did sportscasts every hour in the evenings.
And I would do that.
And I managed to find a tape the other day.
And there's a friend of mine who is introducing me as the newscaster.
Okay, this is from February 1989.
Yep.
Line 3-3.
Five minutes after nine.
And here with sports is Mike Hannafin.
Thanks, Erica.
And good evening, everyone.
Four games in the NHL tonight.
Buffalo leads Winnipeg 3-1 in the second period.
Also in the second, Philadelphia leads New Jersey 2-1.
Later, it's St. Louis at Calgary and Los Angeles at Edmonton.
The Leafs wind up their four-game road trip tomorrow night at Minnesota.
The CFL has awarded the 1991 Grey Cup game to Winnipeg, the same city that drew
only 12,000 fans for a playoff game in 1988. The CFL also approved the sale of the Hamilton
Ticats to businessman David Braley. Michaela Feggini won today's World Cup downhill at Aspen,
top Canadian Karen Percy in sixth. Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno weighed in today for tomorrow's heavyweight championship fight in Las Vegas.
Tyson came in 218.
Bruno tipped the scales at 228.
And a report from New York says Olympic star Florence Griffith-Joyner
will announce her retirement tomorrow.
Flo Jo won three gold medals in Seoul
and has been raking in the dough ever since.
I'm Mike Hannafin.
I'll have another sports update next hour.
Erica?
Thanks, Mike.
That is Erica Johnson,
who was the host
of Marketplace on CBC.
And now I think she works for
GoPublic, another kind of consumer
advocate or, you know, kind of
digging in the
corporate world
to find skullduggery.
And Erica and I are still friends.
Okay, good. And she, she was a, you know, young person coming out of school and reading the news
on CFRB. And I, and I got to, I got to help her a little bit because she had to read the sports
on weekends sometimes, like the little 10 seconds sports or 10, one minute sportscast like that.
And they actually asked me to come in and help you know kind of help her with the sports
because she didn't know anything about sports and we had a great time we're still friends
now they referenced one of your uh you mentioned flojo in here and it's funny because uh this
morning donovan bailey was sitting in the seat you're sitting in right now and he likes to talk
track obviously that on his podcast and flojo up. We were talking about world records and Flojo came up.
And you have a connection to Donovan?
Well, not a connection,
but it was one of the career highlights
involved Donovan Bailey.
Okay.
This comes up in 1996
when I'm working at TSN.
Okay, so let's do this then.
I want to,
let me kick it another jam
and then we'll hear a little more CFRB,
Hannah Finn,
and then post CFRB
we'll capture that,
you know,
that Atlanta 96 story here.
But one of my favorite bands
of all time is on your list.
So would you mind
if I kick it out?
Do it.
This intro is just unbelievable.
The first time I saw this on Saturday Night Live,
I was like, what the hell is this?
And then I just melted. She said There's nothing but a wild new city
Home alone at age thirteen
The real deal is dying
Sorry you didn't see him
But I'm glad we talked
Oh, I'm still alive Notice I don't try to sing.
How do you resist with that jam?
I've done it, but I wouldn't do it in public.
Talk to me about...
I almost said Public Enemy, but
Pearl Jam.
Pearl Jam is one of my favorite bands of all time.
I saw them on Saturday Night Live. My cousin
who lives...
My late cousin who just passed away recently.
My condolences.
In Vancouver, he used to hear the Seattle stations
and would hear this, and he notified
me, he's telling me, you've got to hear this band, Pearl Jam.
You've got to hear this band, Nirvana. You've got to hear this band
all and all down the list and i see them on saturday
night live and i was just blown away now the i would what i would consider the expert on pearl
jam is fotm alan cross and alan cross did a deep deep deep dive maybe maybe one of many, about how this song and how that band was formed out of the Mother Love Bone
remnants. Yes, sir. And Eddie Vedder is sitting on a beach in San
Diego with lyrics and Stone Gossard
and the band are in Seattle with music and they
send a tape, a cassette tape, and Vedder overdubs
some words to this song.
Yep.
Over top of that cassette and sends it back to Stone Gossard.
And Gossard gets the tape and he's like calling his bandmates and going,
you gotta come over right now and hear this.
And it was just mind-blowing.
Can you name the band that he was in at the time in San Diego?
Oh, God.
I can't.
Sorry.
Bad Radio.
Bad Radio, yeah.
Yeah, and they wanted to be called Mookie Blaylock at first.
Well, yeah, they tried that,
and then Mookie Blaylock sent them a cease and desist, didn't he?
But they named the album 10, because that was Mookie's number.
Well, plus it was 10 songs.
Yeah, if you say so but uh great great song one of the best and you're right I mean that band
comes out of mother mother love bone well three of them anyways come out of mother with Jeff and
Stone and uh I think yeah they had the guy from the shadows and then they uh McCready yeah McCready's
from the shadows and then you got bad rad's San Diego Surfer, Ed Veteran.
Perfect.
Boom.
And, yeah, I mean, we talked about how much I love Public Enemy, but I just as much loved Pearl Jam.
This list is a combination of bands that I absolutely have loved in different eras,
but also bands that I have some connection
or a funny story or some kind of personal thing.
Okay, I love it.
Love stories, man.
Tell me a story.
Okay, so here, while,
because I know this song goes,
it's got a nice jam in the middle too,
and when you see them live,
which I've done a dozen times or so,
this song might take 20 minutes
because this jam part,
it would usually be...
I think it's 540.
Yeah, the studio track, yeah.
Okay, so what I want to say really quickly here is
I know you're visiting from Vancouver
and you're off to the Jays game.
So I don't know how convenient this would be for you.
It might not be convenient at all.
But guests who come in person to appear on Toronto Mic'd,
they receive, this is like a Monty Hall or something,
they receive a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta.
Bring it on. Okay. Meat or veggie?
Meat. Okay. This is a rare time I have both in the freezer. So you're not leaving without your
meat lasagna. I have fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. Please. Delicious. Okay. So listen,
you're getting beer. You're getting pasta. That's why I rented a car. You've got a, here,
let me get you a Toronto Mike sticker.
This is courtesy of stickeru.com.
I've listened to a few shows.
Yeah, you know the drill.
I should have you just do this,
but we've already shouted out the good people
at Ridley Funeral Home.
I'm not wearing my doer pants right now,
but here's the deal.
This is really happening.
On Friday,
I'm moderating a panel
at this conference called, conference called, Oh, cannabis. And it's at the, um, by the airport.
It's, uh, where is it in an international center? One of those, I have to find out where I'm going,
but I'm going to bike over in my doer pants and then I'm going to moderate this panel.
So I'm going to look fly. I'm going to look great. And I can bike in these pants and it's going to be amazing.
Doer, D-U-E-R, online or in the retail store on Queen Street.
Use the promo code TMDS and you can save 15%
on the world's most comfortable pants and shorts.
Oh, see that?
You've done this before.
That's a jam, my friend.
Okay, now I want to play.
I want to play.
I want to bring us back
to when the Blue Jays
clinched the pennant
in 1991
yes
um
one of uh
the kind of the pinnacle
things that you do
in your career
is cover a World Series
game winning home run
yeah but this is not that
because this is uh
this is the clincher
in 91
oh this is the previous one
yes I did send you that
we don't actually get
to the World Series
this year
but I will say as an avid...
By the way, I don't know if you care about the Expos.
And even if you have...
Oh, I was a huge Expos fan.
Okay, you have to hear the deep dive I did of Danny Gallagher.
When I get home, I will be listening to that.
Expos fans tell me that it belongs in St. Mary's in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Stone Town.
That's how good this is.
Is that how you call that?
Stone Town?
St. Mary's is the Stone Town.
Okay, I should have known that. It's just south of Stratford. The Stone Town. That's how good this is. Is that how you call that? Stone Town? St. Mary's is the Stone Town. Okay, I should have known that.
It's just south of Stratford. Yes.
When I go to Grand Bend, when I go
to Pinery, I usually drive right by it.
So this is, again, we won
the AL East
in 85. We won it again
in 89 because we
were supposed to win in 87, but we all know what
happened there. 89 was the CETO year.
Right. They were 12 and 24.
You got it, buddy.
I was there that day.
I was there that day.
Mookie comes in.
Yeah.
Oh, I have that too.
So let's do that first.
What were you doing for NPR in 1989?
Well, I was a freelancer.
I was working for CFRB, but I was really never on staff.
I was a freelancer.
Okay.
So I created my own company and just, you know, whatever.
Okay, so let's do that then.
freelancer. So I created my own company and just, you know, whatever.
Let's do that then. Let's start with
your NPR
voicer
when they clinched in 89
and then we'll do CFRB in 91.
NPR called me out of the blue and said
we'd like you to do something on this series
and I did for it. Here we go.
One. The Choker
label has haunted the Jays since they lost
the last seven games of the 1987 season to hand the division to Detroit.
No fold-up this year, in fact, just the opposite, as Toronto came from behind with three runs in the eighth inning to beat Baltimore 4-3,
clinching the division with one game left to play.
Veteran reliever Tom Henke recorded the save and is glad to have it clinched before Sunday.
It's more of an advantage physically because you're going to rest our top front-line players.
Give them just a little extra rest.
There's something about an alcohol-related game.
And, you know, mentally, too.
You can get back and you can relax a bit.
We're in it now, and I think the fun starts now.
The pressure's off.
I met him a few years ago.
After a nothing game today, the Jays head west to open the American League Championship Series Tuesday in Oakland.
For National Public Radio, Mike Hannafin reporting.
Good job.
He's got a nice side gig, and they paid well.
American dollars.
You've got to take that while you can.
Amazing.
So Tom Henke is a nice guy.
Oh, the greatest guy.
A total pro.
I was talking to Mabo about this earlier, about how professional he was and how he mentored a lot of the newer players coming up.
I saw him because I work for the Vancouver Canadiens now. about how how professional he was and how he mentored a lot of the newer players coming up like
i saw him because i work well we'll get to that in a bit but i work for the vancouver canadians now
the jays farm team i'm the official scorer so they bring in they bring in all the old xj's
and a few years ago they brought in hanky and hanky sees me and he's like what are you doing
here like he recognizes me and we talked about the old days and i remember how i gave him a
compliment i said you know you were so good. Win or lose.
I remember one game specifically, he gave up a grand slam home run to Marco Maguire
to lose the game.
And after the game, you're figuring everybody's going to be hiding.
He'd be, you know, in the shower, he wouldn't be available.
He was standing in front of his locker and he says, ask me anything.
Now that's a pro.
And so he, I tell him that story and he goes, oh yeah, I was the only Grand Slam I ever gave up
in my entire professional career.
Wow, wow.
And he remembered that day too.
But see, the other players would see that.
Yeah.
Your Jimmy Keys, your Dwayne Wards,
and your others that came along after him,
and they would see that and they would be professional.
Right.
Dwayne Ward particularly, who was completely mentored
and he was the setup guy, the eighth inning guy
until 93. That was one of the greatest
setup closer combos
in baseball history. What a time.
If they were ahead in going into the eighth inning,
the game was over. Right.
Oh man, what great teams we had.
So actually, now I'm just going to tease it.
So we're going to go back to Detroit here.
We're going to play a jam.
I love this song so much, by the way. And then we're going to come back and we're going to hear that to Detroit here. We're going to play a jam. I love this song so much, by the way.
And then we're going to come back
and we're going to hear that CFRB voice
that you did when we clinched in 91.
Okay.
Let's hear this.
Another band that I saw for the first time on SNL
and blew me away. It's quite possible that I'm your third man, girl. But it's a fact that I'm the seventh son.
It's quite possible that I'm your third man, girl.
But it's a fact that I'm the seventh son.
And right now you could care less about me.
But soon enough you will care by the time I'm done.
Let's have a ball and a biscuit sugar
And take our sweet little time about it
Let's have a ball girl
And take our sweet little time about it
White stripes are so fucking good.
Is it even, it might be possible,
is it even possible they might be underappreciated?
White stripes, even though they were like,
you know, people slagged on Meg all the time,
but there's no, you can't slag on this soul,
this guitar solo.
That's one guitar!
Well, he's a fucking genius, a musical genius.
Ridiculous. Have you heard,
did you see him on Saturday Night Live
when he filled in
for Morgan, whatever his name is?
Oh, you know what?
I did not see that. He did a COVID version of this song.
Okay.
With COVID lyrics.
And go find it on YouTube.
Jack White.
Saturday Night Live, Jack White appearance.
And it was mesmerizing.
Blew the stage up.
Amazing.
Just completely blew it up.
No, big fan.
Big fan of all their stuff.
And one of my favorite bands.
So this is another band you discovered on SNL.
I had heard of them
and then I saw them on SNL
and it was like,
oh my God,
and I just bought everything
they ever had.
I think the first big jam,
I mean,
that first album,
I didn't hear it much,
but CFNY would play
Fell in Love with a Girl.
Yeah.
And they'd play it early and often.
And Much Music played
a lot of their videos too.
Yeah,
from then on basically.
But that's like,
that was the mainstream breakthrough for this band.
They did their first two albums.
He basically did them himself and didn't have much radio play at all.
Prince style.
Yep.
And then all of a sudden this hit and everybody went nuts.
Well, this was actually off Elephant.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dead Leaves in Dirty Ground.
Dead Leaves, yes.
But it was the fell in love of a girl, I feel,
because at that time you had that big The stuff going on.
You had The Strokes, The Hives.
They were all the The bands,
and then you had The White Stripes in the mix.
Yeah, because of that song,
they got signed for the third album.
And then everything took off.
Great fucking band, great jam.
Find it on YouTube, that SNL appearance, the third album. Amazing. And then everything took off. Great fucking band. Great jam. Find it on YouTube,
that SNL appearance,
the latest one.
And then, of course,
the last tour they did
was Canada.
Every province, right?
Every province,
every major city,
some small cities,
and they also did,
you're probably aware,
they did free concerts
every day
in buses,
in PEI, they did in a harbor on a boat they went to a bowling alley in winnipeg or someplace like that i can't remember now they went to a community center in
vancouver or brunner amazing amazing they did a pagoda in white horse wow and and then they played
the one note concert yes st john's right that Right. That's right. The One Note.
One Note, and he left the state.
And he says, I've now played in every province in Canada.
Amazing.
Hey, while we just put that lower in the mix here, I want to hear about Dick Beddows.
Yeah.
So tell us what you did for Dick Beddows.
Well, while I was at CFRB, they signed Dick Beddows, a former CHCH broadcaster,
and, you know, kind of a colorful character who had written
for the Globe and Mail and others.
And they asked me to
be his call screener for his new
Sunday night talk show.
And I did that
and I liked Dick. He was very
nice. He was always very nice to me.
And he ended up, you know, he used to
call me his producer. He produced
his own show.
Like, you didn't produce Dick Beddoe's.
But I was his call screener and just kept the show on the rails.
And he kind of took me under his wing.
We really had a great relationship.
He would constantly, every show, shout out to my mom.
Nice.
He would, oh, because I think he talked to her on the phone one time when he was trying to reach me or whatever it was.
And he just said, oh, such a nice lady.
Oh, Mike's mom.
Oh, Mike's mom, Phyllis, is such a nice lady.
And my mom just thought that was just the greatest thing of all time.
So I would produce that show.
And then after, I'm not sure how long we did it, he started to deteriorate.
I could tell.
He was slipping a little bit.
And then his wife, who is also a very lovely woman called me and said listen dick has cancer oh and we're not sure how much longer he has to live he kept doing
the show until he literally couldn't do the show right any longer superman and then one day i'm at
a jay's game i'm covering a jay's game the press box. The phone rings and it's his wife.
And they're at a hospital on Avenue Road.
And Dick wants to see you.
Wow.
He called.
She called.
And I left the game after the game was over.
Drove up, parked, and went in.
And he was near death.
And he just looked at me.
He smiled.
You know, held his hand for two seconds.
And paid my respects. And he passed away the next day.
And I still have all the obituaries from the newspapers.
He was a legendary figure.
Also, a curler who played in the briar,
representing the club that I play at when I curl now,
Vancouver Curling Club.
He was in the briar now, Vancouver Curling Club.
He was in the briar from the Vancouver Curling Club in the 60s or 50s or something like that.
So his name's up on the wall.
Dick Beddows.
Dick Beddows, the legend.
With a hat.
See, I'm of an age where I absolutely remember
Dick Beddows on CHCH.
He wrote the Pal Hal book.
He wrote Pal Hal.
He wrote a bunch of books about hockey.
Right.
He gave me some autographed copies.
I still cherish.
Wow.
What a guy.
You know, and colorful.
Oh, my God.
And then we had one thing with Hank Elisick on
and they started talking about some stuff
that was a little off color
and I had to cut the mic
and it was, oh, my God.
He was talking about...
There's a name for you, Hank Elisick.
Groupies in the NFL. It was, oh my God, he was talking about groupies in the NFL.
Well, here I teased the clip from CFRB, so I'm going to play it right now.
Okay, this is the 1991 clincher.
Joe Carter's RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning completed a two-run Blue
Jay rally to give the Jays a 6-5 win over the Angels,
Toronto clinching the American League East for the second time in three years.
Carter's blue pit just barely passed the Angels' drawn-in infield, scoring Roberto Alomar from third base with the winning run.
Devon White led off the inning with a single off Angels' ace reliever Brian Harvey.
Vaughn White led off the inning with a single off Angels ace reliever Brian Harvey.
Alomar then hit a hard ground ball to second baseman Kevin Flora.
Flora tried for the force out at second base, but threw the ball into left field for an error.
That allowed White to score to tie the game 5-5.
Alomar then stole third, setting the stage for Carter's dramatic game-winning hit.
Mike Timlin gets the win in relief.
He's now 11-6.
Timlin actually gave up two hits in the top of the ninth,
allowing California to take a 5-4 lead.
Carter, the hero defensively as well,
a great throw to home plate in the ninth to save another run and end the inning.
Brian Harvey takes the loss and is now 2-4.
Final score, Blue Jays six, Angels five,
Blue Jays clinch the American League East. Mike Hannafin, CFRB Sports at the Sky Dome.
And I can remember that because with those kind of voicers, you had to do that as soon as the game was over, like instantly call the station or the network and file that. And I had a script,
of course, with the Angels winning and now we got to go another game, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And, of course, everything happens, and now I've got to have my voice.
And that mostly was winged.
Okay, good.
Just a few small notes.
And, well, I've done it a few thousand times.
And that, you know, it's funny you play that,
because that kind of experience set the stage for 93.
Because that was the ultimate rewrite everything
throw out your script you've got a voice already and then you know what happens i do know what
happens but do i have this clip because i know the second time that would be the joe pavia clip
okay i uh okay so i'll tell you what i have here. This is a little on-air meeting, as Humble and Fred might say. So I have a Canada Cup final.
Yeah, that's not it.
No, that's not it.
But that's actually all I've got left for you.
But here, I'm going to roll into a jam,
and then I'm going to search my email.
Because I might have sent it as a separate email.
Okay, I'm going to look for it.
Because it's a longer clip.
If I have it, I'll find it.
Let's listen to another one of Mike Hannafin's jams.
Woo-hoo! Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with sound reality
Beyond the gilded cage
Cast in this unlikely role Good Toronto band.
The greatest Canadian band.
Is this your favorite song of all time?
I mean, sorry, your favorite band of all time?
It's in my top three.
Zeppelin, these guys, and maybe...
It's a tough question.
Tough one.
Tough one.
But they're in my top three.
And I have a story about...
Yeah, let's hear it.
I played tennis with Alex Delyson one time.
He golfs too,
but I know Howard has golfed with the guy.
So I, when I was probably,
I don't know, maybe at CFRB,
maybe CFNY, probably CFNY.
I got invited to play
in a celebrity media tennis tournament
at the Ontario Racquet Club
down in Mississauga.
And I got to play doubles
with Alex Lifeson.
And Alex Lifeson's probably still laughing
or maybe, you know, not now, but whatever.
He's going, he probably went home that night and he goes,
I'm playing tennis and this guy's, well, this guy's
asking me about Caress of Steel.
Because I was asking him
questions about Russian. He probably loved it. I'm playing
tennis with Alex Lifeson, playing
doubles. And I'm asking him, well, what about, you know, Caressive Steel?
And he had the pat answer, which he uses all the time.
Well, we had to do Caressive Steel in order to know how to do 21-12.
Right.
Because there was a lot of long segments.
And so I'm asking him all kinds of questions.
Well, we're playing doubles between points.
Because when are you going to get another chance to ask questions to Alex Lyson?
Wow.
Play tennis with Alex Lyson.
I use that one.
I've used that one quite a bit to get.
First of all, that's amazing.
And did you ever bump into Geddy Lee at the Dome or at Exhibition Stadium before that?
No, I did not.
Okay.
You know, I'm not sure.
He was a baseball fan all his life, but I don't think it was an obsession until later on.
Well, you know he's a big fan
because he scores his own games.
And most people aren't doing that anymore.
It's a lost art,
and that's why I'm doing it in Vancouver.
I know Wilner still does it.
Mike Wilner.
I get paid to do it, though.
So touch on that while we're talking about it.
So I think that's awesome.
I know Roger Lajoie, who's an FOTM,
would occasionally score games at the Dome.
Three years ago, I scored a pass when I was here
because I'm the official scorer for the Vancouver Canadiens,
which is the Jays affiliate.
So what level is this?
That's single A.
Single A, okay.
So I came, I was in Toronto,
and I knew I was coming to Toronto to see my mom,
see friends.
And I got a pass to go up in the press box pre-game only.
And I sat with Raj and we talked about scoring and the difference between major league scoring and minor league scoring and the different things like that.
And had a nice conversation.
Then I sat in the crowd and watched the game.
Amazing.
And you've been doing this for how long?
Since 2011 with the C's.
Okay.
It's just after I got let go by in radio and broadcasting,
I had to do something and I got a gig doing this.
And I've never stopped.
Amazing.
Okay.
We're going to let Geddy take us home and then I'm going to play the clip.
I have located the missing clip.
There it is.
And this is from the night.
This is from 1993.
Of the home run.
Okay.
An infamous night to a point where there's a micumentary about this night.
And I came too late to this party to get in on it.
I know, you would have been on that episode.
So shout out here to Joe Pavia, who now works for CBC and KW.
He was the overnight newscaster at CFRB the night of the Carter home run.
And Joe called me in the press box
after I'd filed my initial voicer.
He calls me, and he says,
listen, can I just do, you know,
a two or three minute Q&A with you?
And he recorded it, and he used it overnight.
Okay, let's hear it.
We're Toronto's news station, CFRB 1010.
Good morning, it's 1.30.
I'm Joe Pavia, CFRB News.
The temperature in downtown Toronto is 9 degrees, mainly clear overnight with a low near 8.
We're partying in Metro tonight.
Joe Carter hit a beautiful home run in the bottom of the 9th to give the Blue Jays their second World Series title in a row, 8-6 the final score.
There's no movement in downtown Toronto, south of Dundas, a sea of people.
One police officer estimated at least a million people are downtown celebrating
the win more on their way down there joe carter was the man who gave the jays the win with a three
run homer in the bottom of the ninth now cfrb's mike canephan is at skydome and mike i guess it's
a lot quieter now well they're now uh tearing apart the field at skydome for the final time
this year i think there was an argo game the next night. I'm trying to see everything get knocked down in less than an hour after Joe Carter
hit the home run right in front of me.
I was sitting in the left field bleachers.
That's where they had the auxiliary press box.
And the home run literally landed right in front of me
in the Blue Jay bullpen.
Pandemonium, 52,000 plus going crazy.
The fans going crazy in the stands.
The Blue Jays came flying out of their own dugout.
One of those scenes that lives on in history where Carter hits the home run
and the players come flying out of the bench to watch to make sure it stayed fair.
It did, and an emotional Joe Carter after the game
said he was very proud of his and the team's accomplishment.
You go out there and you play hard, and you try to give it your best,
and anything can happen.
This team never gave up.
We believed in ourselves.
We had to come back against a great team, the Phillies.
Guys persevered.
Everyone talked about how many guys we lost.
They never really talked about the guys we gained.
We gained some quality guys, but we also had some great guys.
For something like this to happen, I mean, Cito was great last year.
He was even better this year.
Joe Carter of the Blue Jays, the hero tonight,
as the Blue Jays win their second straight World Series title,
the first time they've done it at home.
So we'll let the parties begin.
And, Mike, I guess that is something Joe Carter is never going to forget.
Never, and no one who ever saw it live will ever forget it either.
A dramatic, game-winning home run to win a World Series.
They talk about the 1975 series where Carlton Fisk hit the home run to win a game.
That was not the home run to win the series.
That won just simply one game.
This one won the whole shebang.
And Joe Carter, you know, Joe Carter was very close to not being a Blue Jay this year.
He signed as a free agent.
He thought about going to Kansas City.
Now he says the best decision he ever made in his life,
coming back to Toronto for this.
You know, it was beautiful, Mike.
I was sitting there watching, and I thought, you know,
it would be great if Carter could do something here
because he was the guy who caught the ball in the last out last year.
He brought it up.
He caught the ball to win the World Series at first base.
If you remember in the ALCS against
Chicago, he caught the game-winning fly ball
to end that series.
And he says he made the prediction to his
teammates before
the series started that he had to do something
because he was always in there
whenever they won. Except
this time he said, maybe I'll do it offensively.
And he was very prophetic.
A madhouse in the Blue Jay clubhouse after the game,
as you'd expect, the champagne and beer flowing.
Paul Mulder was the series MVP and well-deserved.
He had an incredible series.
He had a home run tonight, 12 hits in, let's see, 24 at-bats, so he had an even
500, I believe, in the series.
And he had the single right
before Joe Carter's home run
to set the stage off Mitch Williams.
The wild thing
gave up the home run. Williams
was not a happy man in the Phillies' clubhouse.
Said a few
choice words and then said, listen,
I feel worse for my teammates
because I'm the one who blew it.
He admitted it.
Joe Carter hit the home run, and the rest is history.
Mike Hannafin, thank you very much.
By the way, Mike, you didn't happen to get that ball that Carter hit, did you?
No.
One of the Blue Jay bullpen guys grabbed it, and I imagine it's going to be somewhere,
either in the Blue Jay Hall of Fame or the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Someone's going to be somewhere either in the Blue Jay Hall of Fame
or the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Someone's going to get it.
And it was, you know, I can make some catches,
but I would have had to reach about 15 feet, and I had other things to do.
I think I was finally in the story.
CFRB's Mike Hannafin down at the Sky Dome.
Mike, thank you very much.
Briefly, firefighters are on the scene of a gas station fire at Western Road.
The news continues.
Amazing.
And a shout-out to Joe Pavia.
It's amazing that he saved that recording,
and then he offered it up to me, and I was like,
hey, I got a recording of you that night.
And I was like, bring it on.
You know, you're playing all my favorite all my favorite bands on your jam kicking today.
I almost feel like
I'm kicking out the jams here.
So let's roll into another one.
Oh,
Puffy lips Glistening skin
And everything
Looks rushing in
We don't know to hell
The memories of us still
I get a sense of connectedness
Exclusive type of nothing dangerous
We don't gotta have
Challenging lyric ahead.
The memories of us still
And if you've got a heart Still Yeah
And if you go to hell I'll still remember you
But I thought you'd be forgetful
And I never did it
Just a little bit
I thought you'd be forgetful
And I never did it
Just a little bit I thought you'd be forgetful The Tragically Hip.
What an awesome lyric that is.
Gord came up, I want to say this was a topic of conversation
yes, yesterday with Torquil Campbell
we talked about how like
there's just, as a front man goes
there's only ever going to be one Gord Downie
so the reason I threw this in
because I do have a story about this gentleman
I'm at
Canadian Press broadcast news
after a Leaf game or something some night
I was filing you know freelance things
and i'd gone to the game and i come back with my tape and i'm in a studio to edit the tape cut the
tape into clips and you know write the leads and everything else and in an adjoining studio
this gentleman in a hoodie comes in tall gentleman in a hoodie it's a middle of winter
right and he is in there to be interviewed i don't even know who
it is and the the canadian press guy was doing an interview with him and it's cordowny wow and i'm
in the next booth listening to you know you know some leaf guy talk and i'm looking at the board
and i'm going i'm looking at the board i'm, one of these buttons will allow me to hear this interview.
Right.
And I'm like, okay.
Because you can, you know, the boards and everything are all connected in the studios.
And I'm looking, okay, is the studio tuned?
And then I thought, ah, if I hit the wrong button, I'm in big trouble.
Right.
And I never did.
Oh, so.
And it was Gord Downie.
Gord Downie.
So you're a fan of the Tragically Hip.
Absolutely.
Okay.
All right.
So, man, you kicked out the jams today,
and I heard Public Enemy, I heard Pearl Jam,
I heard the Tragically Hip.
Honestly, there's a lot of overlap here.
I dig this the most, man.
Yeah.
Amazing.
Now, I could hear Gord's stories all day,
except I want to hear a story
if you have one and I think you might
because a little birdie told me
so just to preface this
I got a phone call
from Blair Packham
from the Jitters
did you get the Jitters on your jam kicking today?
okay where's the Jitters?
well Blair's going to hear this
so pretend you did and I accidentally deleted it
sorry Blair we did but it's gone
last of the Red Hot Fools
was one of your jams. But anyway,
he was talking about U of T Radio where he
knew Andrew Crystal from.
Not his real name, by the way.
He was Andrew something else. Anyway.
Also at U of T Radio
at this time are FOTMs
Steve Pagan
and Michael Landsberg. You take
it over from here. Well, I'm working, I was accepted for engineering and decided I didn't want to be an engineer, I wanted to be a sports U of T Arundale College, U of T Arundale College, now called UTM.
So I'm there and I walk into their radio station and say, well, I'd like to be a sportscaster.
And they said, okay, you're the sportscaster.
Because there was no other sportscaster.
So I'm the sportscaster.
So I'm a sportscaster on the Arendelle station
and then I get a phone call someday saying,
listen, we do U of T football
and we'd like to get you involved.
And I said, sure.
So I show up at the varsity stadium
and I'm going to do the broadcast
and I don't know who the people I'm going to be doing the broadcast with.
It's Steve Paikin.
Wow. Steve Paikin and I were the play-by-play in color for one game one game and
our producer was michael lansberg okay so steve will listen to this episode and we will find out
does fotm steve pagan remember his one game i've reminded of moments okay with mike hannison okay
and lansberg and because i ended up working with lansberg later at tsn but anyway so we'll do the his one game. I've reminded of most. Okay, with Mike Hanneson. And Landsberg.
And it's because I ended up
working with Landsberg
later at TSN.
But anyway, so we do the game
and there was one player
on U of T,
Sam Papaconstantino,
who must have made 30 tackles.
Okay.
And we constantly had to
keep saying the name
and we butchered it all night.
Papaconst Constantino.
Yes.
It's now easy to say.
And Steve and I were doing the game, and we had a blast.
And then years later, he's a big star, and I'm a sportscaster.
Well, you know, you're both big stars in somebody else's sky. But he's Steve Paikin.
He's Steve fucking Paikin.
Don't you forget it, okay?
I don't see any Frank Sinatra on your list.
He's going to be disappointed, but there is this
jam, and I'm going to kick it out
right now. 🎵 Sometimes, well it all looks like a sugar heart
Close my eyes and disappear for a while
And the moon is falling
Slowly out of me
While the angels are singing
Yeah
And the angels are singing me out
Shout out to FOTM Mike Boguski.
This is Blue Rodeo.
Probably a band I've seen probably as much as,
almost as much as any band I've ever seen in my life
because they play all the time everywhere.
I've seen them in Toronto.
I've seen them in Vancouver.
I've never seen them play this song,
my favorite song of theirs of all.
You know what I'm thinking?
I've seen them a handful of times too,
including last summer.
They never play this song live.
I wonder why that is.
When I get Jim Cuddy on the show,
I'm going to find out.
Please do. Because I think maybe it's just too guitar, too much of a guitar song. they never play this song live I wonder why that is when I get Jim Cuddy on the show I'm going to find out please do
because I think
maybe it's just
too guitar
too much of a guitar song
but it is a great song
it's unbelievable
it's a very popular album
and I'm a very
I think that's their best album
I know a lot of people go
Outskirts
no no
Six Days in May
right
but I
I love this album
Lost Together
it's one of my favorite
albums of all time.
Yeah.
And I'm very partial
to Keillor songs.
Yeah, me too.
I think he's just
a brilliant...
And what's your favorite,
is this your favorite
Blue Rodeo song?
Absolutely, yeah.
I like Diamond Mine.
Yeah, and a great song.
But yeah,
I've never seen them
play this song live
and I've seen them
so many times.
And I heard on
Humble and Fred,
maybe it was on
your podcast as well,
that there was a Keillor reference about him.
Oh, you know who that was?
In the 72 series.
Jeff Merrick dropped that one.
No, Scott Morrison.
No, Jeff Merrick.
Well, maybe they both had.
But Scott was pushing his book, right?
Yeah.
About the 72 series?
Scott Morrison, because he was on my show too, Scott,
pushing his 72 Summit series book, which is very good.
On Humble and Fred. But I can tell you this.
Maybe Merrick
was first to it. I don't think Scott told
that story, but you would... Anyway,
this is a crazy argument. Yeah, absolutely.
On Humble and Fred, I think Jeff Merrick,
you think Scott Morrison. Somebody shared the story.
Do you remember the...
Sure, it was Bobby Orr. Bobby Orr was
injured, and they wanted him to play in the Summit Series in 72,
and he went and tried to skate around at...
Oh, that is a...
I'm thinking of a different story.
And they had Bobby Orr running around,
you know, just testing his knee.
Right.
And the goalie was Greg Keeler.
Right.
Who was like a second string...
Okay.
Junior or college goalie.
Right. And they needed a goalie.ie, and that was Greg Keeler.
Greg Keeler.
Okay, so later you'll be phoning me when you check the tapes.
You'll say, oh, that was Jeff Merrick, but a gentleman Jeff Merrick, as we say.
But that reference, of course, Bobby Orr wanting to play in the Summit Series,
Scott Morrison talked about that.
But he did travel with the team to Moscow, which was very, very cool.
I enjoyed my 1972 deep dive with Scotty Moe.
That was amazing.
And again, I was, what, 13.
So that's a good age.
I think that's a great age to soak that in.
That's one of those memories I don't have, but I feel like I have it.
And again, you can't forget it, that whole thing.
I mean, the Esposito interview with Johnny Esau in Vancouver. Love it. And again, you can't forget it. That whole thing. I mean, the Esposito interview with Johnny Esau
in Vancouver. Love it.
And, you know,
the Mohavlich goal.
And then the Paul Henderson.
You got the game winner in the final three games.
Three games in a row. Amazing.
And then, you know, there you go.
The rest is history, as they say.
Yeah, absolutely. 72 semiseries.
So,
where are we at here? Now, I'm trying to get you... Okay, so, absolutely. 72-7 series. So, where are we at here?
Now, I'm trying to get you.
So, let me play one final clip.
In fact, if I'm.
Oh, that's the Canada Cup thing.
Yeah, let's do the Canada Cup thing since we just talked hockey.
I got to cover hockey a lot.
And that Canada Cup series was amazing.
I got to cover the other one, too.
The Lemieux scoring the game winning goal.
87.
But I don't have any tape on that one.
I wish I did.
That's the more famous in
fact i had this chat with scott morrison so you know we all talk about 2010 because it was a golden
goal and 72 because it transcended sports and uh the sometimes forgotten oh it was with tim warnsby
so he wrote a book about the o2 gold medal team and that one gets overlooked city yeah and that
was the first canadian gold in 50 years.
So, the way I have it set up,
because we're going to jam here,
and I'm going to bring that down,
but not all the way down.
And now, we're going to listen to this.
Steve Larmer's short-handed goal
with 7.47 left in the third period
led Team Canada to a 4-2 win over Team USA
and a two-game sweep in the third period led Team Canada to a 4-2 win over Team USA and a two-game
sweep in the Canada Cup final. Larmer stealing the puck from USA defenseman Gary Suter at
the Canadian blue line, went in on a breakaway and after a deke to his backhand, Larmer put
the puck between the legs of goaltender Mike Richter. Larmer's second goal of the game
coming just seconds after Canadian goaltender Bill Ranford stopped Brett Hall from close range. Dirk Graham scored an empty net
goal with 42 seconds left to make it a 4-2 final. Team Canada led 2-0 after the
first period on goals by Marc Messier and Larmer. Team USA tied it with two
goals in the second by Jeremy Roenick and Kevin Miller. Bill Ranford named
tournament MVP. Final score, Team Canada 4,
USA 2. Canada winning the
final in two straight games.
Mike Hannifin, CFRB Sports,
at the Cops Coliseum in Hamilton.
Cool.
And that's another one of those
voicer, as soon as the
game's over and the crowd is still going nuts
and you can hear in the background they were yelling Gretzky, Gretzky.
Right.
Because Gretzky was hurt in the previous game because Suter got him.
Right.
And that's why I put the emphasis on Gary Suter being the goat in that last game,
giving up the puck to Larmer.
And yeah, they were yelling, they were chanting Gretzky
because he came out on the ice to celebrate with them in his civvies.
Amazing. Okay, that's awesome.
I'm rolling right into the next jam.
We've got three more to go.
This is one of your favorite bands of all time.
I'm going to roll into it,
and then we're going to find out why you leave CFRB.
Here is your anti-penultimate jam.
Not the Beastie Boys, everybody.
No.
The drums. Thank you. guitar solo We'll be right back. When the levee breaks, I have no place to stay
Needle levee taught me to weave them on
Needle levee taught me to weave them on
It's got what it takes to make my mouth tickle so Let's go.
Led Zeppelin.
The drums.
Yeah.
Jimmy Page, one of the greatest producers of rock music of all time, obviously.
He set up Bonzo's drum kit in a hallway of an old house to get that sound, that echo and that whole thing.
And he had the microphone set up all over the place,
and he got that sound, which is just stunning.
The start of that and then all the way through.
Only he would think of that.
And he's in that doc with Jack White.
Yep.
It might get loud.
And The Edge.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Amazing.
I'm a huge Zeppelin fan, and that's one of my favorite Zeppelin songs.
And then the Beastie Boys sampled it with permission.
Are you sure?
Eventually.
But just that sound.
Oh, amazing.
The echo is unbelievable.
Great jam by a band. I'm
certain I underappreciate this band because I
only know the radio
hits. I only ever owned one
Led Zeppelin album,
which is Led Zeppelin 4.
Which a lot of...
I think it was a rite of passage as a
team. You had to have that.
And I liked going to California. Well, I liked a lot of the
stuff. And again, I grew up
with that band and I
remember the day Bonzo died.
I'm driving home from Humber
College in my little
car that only had an AM radio
and I have Chum on. And Chum
never played Zeppelin. Right. And they
play Zeppelin and I'm driving home and there's a Zeppelin
song. I'm going, oh, wow, great.
And then they played another Zeppelin song. I'm going, oh, wow, great. And then they played another Zeppelin song.
And I'm going, what?
And then they played Moby Dick.
And I knew right there
when Chum would play three
Zeppelins and a Moby Dick,
Bonzo's dead.
September 25th, I want to say
80...
Probably 80.
Yeah.
Okay. Ze, okay.
Zeppelin.
Glad you're kicking out your favorite jams here.
We only have two more to go,
but I want to get a couple of stories out of you
during this jam in the background here.
Why does it end for you at 10-10?
There was no more sports to cover in 94
because hockey had their lockout
and baseball went on strike.
And when you're a reporter and there's no games and you're a freelancer, you make no money.
Right.
And so time was up.
Now, having said that, I'm at one of the negotiations we're happening with the NHL Players Association.
And I made, you know, I'd made connections with the TSN people and Gino Retta.
FOTM Gino Retta.
Gino Retta.
He comes up to me at some point and he asks me, listen, the negotiations are going to go overnight.
If something breaks, can you call our newsroom?
Because I was staked out at NHLPA headquarters at Dundas and Yonge Street.
Okay.
Near the Eaton Center.
Yep.
And if something happens overnight,
and you call our newsroom,
and if we send a camera,
can you hold the mic for us?
I said, absolutely.
You know, I'm a freelancer.
I'm picking up the bucks anywhere I can.
Right.
And I did that.
Nothing happened,
but, you know, they appreciated that.
And Gino, at the end of it,
says, listen,
how'd you like to come work for TSN?
I keep telling him, you know,
like, get this guy out there. This is, you know, know no sports and we could use a guy like that in the newsroom
and there was no sports cover and he hooked me up with mike day who was the boss of sports
center at the time okay uh and i got in the newsroom a couple days a week became four became Became four, became five, became full-time job. And then I worked at TSN from, I want to say, 94 to 2001.
Awesome.
And the highlight, probably one of the highlights, I got to do Formula One auto racing.
I was the associate producer of Formula One.
So I would put together all the pre-race shows when Villeneuve was at his peak.
I would put together all the pre-race shows when Villeneuve was at his peak.
And I got to go to the, I was the field producer at the 1996 Olympics with FOTM, Rod Smith.
Wow. And Rod and I, and Mark Millett was our camera, the three of us tried to cover the Olympics.
Non-rights holders in those days, which meant you had no eligibility to be anywhere with anything electronic.
You couldn't bring a camera, a tape recorder, anything inside the barricades.
Right.
And we covered the Olympics.
And Rod, it was, you know, fun.
Frustrating, but fun.
Right.
We got kicked out of one place.
Before the games even started, we were at the rowing venue to see if we could get some B-roll.
And we're, you know, shooting B-roll of rowers off in the distance.
And a car comes up, and it's Chris Cuthbert of CBC at the time.
Yeah.
And Chris, great guy, comes up and he goes, guys, guys, you can't be here.
You can't be here.
You're inside the perimeter with a camera.
And we're saying, saying what the games haven't
started no no it doesn't matter it doesn't matter and so he gave us a heads up and we packed up all
our gear and and said okay we're burning this tape we can't because if it played we would have
had our passes pulled right so we just saved your ass up and left and like you know five ten minutes
later the the ioc police probably right came up and so we got out of there
but the highlight of the the games for us yeah was the night that that uh donovan bailey and the
four by 100 team won the gold and we staked out we had to get the interview because that's all we
were really trying to do was we were trying to interview one-on-one rod with the medal winners
right and anytime a person won a medal we
had to get the interview but we had no rights to be anywhere right so what we did is we figured out
a place right at the entrance to the uh athletes village there was a bp gas station and so we would
park there and we would stake out the entrance and then get them to drop off the athletes in the bus or the car or
whatever at the place and then rod would do the one-on-one interview we'd be in touch with their
agents or their you know their handlers or whatever and we'd arrange to meet them there and we do that
but with the four by one we couldn't do that because cbc took them away to do the radio the
french the english the tv and everything else right and so we staked out outside of CBC's big building,
and we were on the phone.
Rod was on the phone.
The RDS, the French TSN,
was on the phone with Bernie Surin's agent.
And we're outside,
and we could see them coming down the escalator
from the studio,
and we're saying,
we're outside, we're flashing.
And we had Mark flash the sun gun on the camera,
flashing the light. We're outside, just come out the door and the cbc people are trying to you know corral
them keep them moving keep moving down to the next escalator so they're and they they said nope we're
going up and talk to them and they came out the door and they talked to us and rod did a one-on-four
with all the guys amazing and we did the interview can you name the four uh i can i saw them the
other day it was well sir well, Surin, Bailey.
There was a guy that was not supposed to run that ended up running, right?
Robert Esme?
Esme.
Yeah, and then Glenroy Gilbert.
And then Glenroy Gilbert.
Yeah.
And what a race.
Oh, it was just unbelievable.
Oh, man, it's funny.
I mentioned just this morning,
Donovan Bailey sitting there for his podcast.
So the whole idea that every Tuesday of 2022 thus far,
I've spent quality time with Donovan Bailey.
And when he came on Toronto Mic and became an FOTM,
I played the calls, the CBC calls of the-
Sure, Don.
The 100 meter, Don Whitman, absolutely.
And then of course the four by 100 meter,
but man, that's only, let me do the math that's only
eight years removed from uh ben johnson and seoul so it was really what this country needed and it
was amazing it was a lot great thing and then uh mike day the boss of tsn um he um rewarded us
for getting that scoop with uh pick a pick a restaurant and go nuts.
Love it.
And we did.
Two more jams to go.
Favorite Beastie Boys song.
Woo. Wee! Ah! Yee-hoo! Yee-hoo! One, two, one, two, keep it on Listen to this shit because we keep it till
dawn Listen to the ass track, got it going on
Listen to the ladies, come on and let me spawn Pour your eggs, then you go up the river
Listen to the ass track, that freaky nigga
Now I'm at rock and I'm shockin' I'm tickin' I'm talkin' I can't stop with my body
rock See I got heart like John Starrs Hitin' mass bars Fast, free the mic and I'll be rockin' the Dude, I love it.
You're speaking my language here today.
This is amazing.
And Q-tip.
Yeah.
And this opened up a whole new world to me of the next jam.
But whatever.
I just love BC Boys.
They're such a great, different, completely different.
Well, you know why?
They were the hybrid, man.
You got your funk.
You got your hip-hop.
You got your rock, your punk.
It's all in there. So many influences.
They grew up in New York,
and there was just so much coming at them,
and they kind of synthesized everything into this.
And I just love,
give me some Tribe Called Quest
any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
I listen to Tribe Called Quest now all the time,
and this opened my eyes to Q-Tip,
and he was just guesting.
They asked him to come in and do this,
and he knocked it out of the park as usual.
And then I go, oh, Tribe Called Quest.
And then I saw, you know, this and that.
Yeah, dude, speak my language.
And you did bang your head on your way to the studio here
because you didn't see the check your head sign there.
I feel like that's a special club that has smacked their head on the top of that.
It's a large club though.
Okay.
So we kind of breezed by it, but you were at CFNY for four years,
and we did talk about James Baby Scott, and we talked about Pete and Geats,
and we talked about Mike Stafford and Freddie P.
Are there any other CFNY personalities you want to shout out and tell a story about?
Lots of them, but Scott Turner.
FOTM Scott Turner.
He used to do evenings, andott turner he used to do evenings and i would call in
from the gardens and i didn't think he'd be interested in hearing from you know an update
from maple leaf gardens and the leafs and you know san jose sharks but he did he loved it because
he'd hear the ambient noise and then i would have some fun we always made fun of the organ player
we talk about how he's wearing oven mitts. Well, what year is this?
Because he's still there if it's Jimmy Holmstrom.
Oh, yeah, it would have been Jimmy Holmstrom.
Yeah, he's still there.
I saw him there.
I got a tour like about a month ago and he's still there.
Yeah, well, and so I would phone in
and Scott Turner would throw me on the air
and he said, keep doing it.
I love it.
I love it.
And that kind of encouragement from, you know.
Well, Scott's a sweetheart.
Oh, unbelievable guy.
And I'm so
happy with the success he's had post cfny and all the different things he's done because that guy was
so good and and you talk about people who are underrated like you know there were so many stars
on cfny and was he a star i don't know he was He was just a great DJ. And it turned out he's done so many great things since.
No argument here.
Big fan of Scott Turner.
And he'll be back here again soon.
He always brings it, too.
Much like yourself, he comes very, very prepared.
So we appreciate you, Scott.
I only got one shot at this, you know, my friend.
So we're rolling into the final jam.
Yeah. I only got one shot at this, you know, my friend. So we're rolling into the final jam. The video for this is awesome as well. I like your black hair and your fat ass thighs. Street poetry is my everyday. But you know I gotta stop when you drop my weight.
If I was working at the club you would not pay.
Ayo my man Fife Diggie he got something to say.
I like a brown yellow Puerto Rican and Haitian.
Name is Fife Diggie from the Zulu Nation.
So you're in the jam that we can get down.
Now let's knock the booth like the group H-Town.
You got VVD all on your bedroom wall.
But I'm above the rim and this is how I ball. A gritty little something on the New York streets. Love it.
Tribe Called Quest.
Such a great tune to listen to.
You're driving and just relax.
And, you know, they do all kinds of different things.
This is a bit of a departure in a lot of ways,
but this is my favorite song from Tricol.
Love it.
Love the band.
You know, again, we talk about the hybrid, right?
They were basically like jazz, hip-hop fusion.
It was amazing.
And Q-Tip's so talented.
Picking samples of something, anything,
just picking a little beat, a drum beat, and then looping it and turning it into a song. Just amazing. And Q-Tip's so talented. Picking samples of something, anything,
just picking a little beat, a drum beat,
and then looping it and turning it into a song.
Just amazing.
So here, before we play lowest of the low and say goodbye here, I've thoroughly enjoyed this,
but I need to know what happens in 2005
because we've talked about, you know,
we just left you at TSN.
We know next you're working with Rosie
at the Weather Network.
Then something must happen in 2005 because you quit everything,
you sell everything, and you move to Vancouver.
What the hell happened?
Well, in 2003, I took a few months off and I traveled.
And I traveled across the country, drove across the country,
and I got to see different places.
And I got to Vancouver and the West Coast and the mountains
and the trees and the forest and the hiking and everything else. And I just went, wow, this, this is me. I just didn't know it. Right. And I just
decided to pack it up, sold my place. Um, I made some contacts and told people I was going to be
coming out in radio and TV and, uh, managed to get some work. And I ended up, up uh working at the the 680 news of vancouver news 1130 worked there until
2010 and then i got you know packaged with everybody else and right purge and uh yeah and
i'm not going i'm not going to be leaving there anytime soon then you just pick up some freelance
work you're doing that you talked about curling because you did a tsn but you got to work on some
sports net curling broadcast yeah i picked up a few things.
When Sportsnet was doing the provincial, the BC provincials, I ended up hooking up because Dave Tredgett, who worked at TSN when I was there,
he ended up going over to Sportsnet and he hooked me up with some work whenever they were doing stuff in BC.
So it was good.
Amazing.
I'm doing no media anymore.
No, just, but you're still scoring for the Vancouver Canadiens,
which is freaking cool.
And I mean, I take it you're just hiking and biking
and living that wonderful, you know, natural lifestyle out West.
And now I'm feeling very jealous.
As long as my back holds out, which I'm having back surgery soon.
But yeah, but that hopefully will be putting me right back in the mountains again,
doing my thing.
Mike Hannafin, you're an FOTM now, and thanks for doing this.
I'm glad we could make this happen while you were in town,
because when do you go back home?
Leaving Thursday night.
Oh, we got this in just under the wire.
Election day.
Get out of here.
I'll watch the landscape burn from the plane.
That's another story. Another story for
another episode. But enjoy
the Jays game tonight. Thank you.
You know, speaking of curling, we talked about curling.
I remember Rosie
worked for Dome Productions.
And she would work. That's when I met
Andrew Stokely. And Stokely
has done his fair. He'll be at the Dome tonight
doing the audio for Sportsnet, but he's done
his fair share of
curling broadcasts himself.
I'm a curler myself,
so natural fit.
Shout out to the curlers.
And that...
Oh, you know what? I never promoted.
I'm going to do it right now before I tell you what's
coming up next.
We're all collecting.
Stu Stone, Andy from Canada Cabana,
Canada Kev, maybe Kareem.
We're all collecting in my backyard tonight,
tonight at 8 p.m.
And we're going to just kick out some stoner jams.
We're going to talk about anything and everything and some weed.
We're going to get a new project from Stu Stone is going to be unveiled.
We're going to hear new music from Stu.
It's going to be great.
So join us at live.torontomic.com at 8 p.m.
Of course, most of you won't hear this
until after that.
But it'll be up down.
We'll record it for the podcast.
But I want to shout out Canna Cabana.
This is going to be the Canna Cabana episode.
So that's 8 p.m. tonight.
And that brings us to the end of our 1058th show.
You can follow me on Twitter.
I'm at Toronto Mike.
Are you at Mike Hannafin?
Correct.
Okay, follow Mike.
He's at Mike Hannafin.
Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.
Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.
Sticker U is at Sticker U. Dewar are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.
Dewar are at Dewar Performance.
Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH.
And Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore.
See you all later today. With the smell of snow, it won't be today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine
And it won't go away
Cause everything is rosy and green
Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day
But I wonder who
Yeah, I wonder who Yeah, I wonder who
Maybe the one
who doesn't realize
There's a thousand
shades of gray
Cause I know that's true
Yes, I do
I know it's true
Yeah, I know it's true
How about you?
All that picking up trash and then putting down roads
And they're broken in stocks, the class struggle explodes
And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can