Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Scot Turner: Toronto Mike'd #579
Episode Date: February 5, 2020Mike catches up with Scot Turner before he kicks out the jams....
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Welcome to episode 579 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything.
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I'm Mike from torontomike.com.
And joining me to kick out the jams is Scott with 1T Turner.
Hey. Hey.
Hi.
Nice to be back.
Thanks for having me back.
Five years, right?
It's five years? Okay.
So I'm the second longest second guest.
Is that it?
That's right.
Oh, you've been paying attention.
I listened a little bit to Erin Davis.
I have to finish that one.
But she's the longest stretch between shows, right?
She was episode 84,
and then she was on two episodes ago, 577.
You're the second longest stretch between episodes,
but there's a guy lurking in the weeds,
ready to pounce and beat the records, Jeff Merrick.
Okay, yeah.
Because he was episode 74, and he's been threatening to come back.
So, yeah, Aaron's record won't last long,
but when you finish that Aaron Davis episode,
make sure you got a box of tissues handy.
It gets very sad.
I heard.
I'm going to make up for it though, however.
I think maybe in my notes to you,
I said that you need to have me back
because I was trying to,
you know, it was one of the hardest things
to try and pick 10 songs.
Right.
So I decided to do it in 70s, five songs from the 70s and five songs from the 80s.
I couldn't even get into the 90s.
I was like, this is too much.
Well, you could do a sequel.
So yeah, can we?
Yeah.
Okay, great.
Are you kidding me?
It only took me five years to get you back here.
So in the year 2025, Scott Turner returns for...
Yes!
Yeah.
Now, okay, so let's tell people about that first episode,
which you got...
I remember this very distinctly
because George Strombolopoulos,
he wanted episode 102.
Because at the time, he said he wanted episode 102
and he'd come back for 590.
Of course, at the time,
we thought it would be 100 years if we ever got to 590.
How dare?
I would never get close.
But it's coming up soon.
You're 579.
But now he's out of the country or something.
So there's a whole problem there.
Thanks for that honor, by the way.
102, yeah.
Thank you.
You were so worthy of 102.
And funny thing, like a couple of episodes later,
David Marsden came by and I thought,
oh, maybe he could have been 102.
But no, I'm glad I got Scott Turner.
But let me tell people the description for
episode 102 if they want to pause this
and go back and listen
to the first deep dive
of Scott Turner.
In this 102nd episode, Mike chats
with Spirit of Radio
Sunday host, we're going to talk
about that, my friend, Scott Turner
about his many years on CFNY
and Energy 108. what's next for
spirit of radio sunday on edge 102 rest in peace and why he keeps changing the spelling of his
first name because i distinctly remember you as scott s-k-o-t yes correct but what's on your
birth certificate did we explain that last time?
Yes, but it's been five years, Scott.
We have to remind them.
So the true Scott is S-C-O-T-T.
There's two, you know, and that's my birthright.
But the story, should I repeat the story?
It's really boring.
Well, make it interesting.
Like do a 60-second version.
Very, very quickly, there were like three Scotts at CFNY and we wrote our names on the music sheets and that.
And there was a James Scott and there was another Scott.
And it was getting confused somehow.
Our names and David Marsden was the one who said to me, why don't you spell your name with a K?
That's my best David Marsden accent.
That's pretty good.
And I thought, yeah, I was into being doing different things. So that's where that started. S-K-O-T
with one T. I went to a numerologist once who said you should only have so many letters
in your name based on when you were born. This was like a real, I was really into that
astrology and I got a real proper reading from a professional numerologist. There is
such a thing.
You still believe in this?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Astrology is one of the old sciences,
and numerology fits in with that too.
And there's a lot of math to it.
It's not just hocus-pocus.
And if you ever get a proper astrology reading,
it can be very serious.
And I did once.
And anyway, a numerologist told me this,
for communication and your name and when you're born and how many letters in your name.
And I go, okay, I got four letters it is.
And later on it became S-C-O-T.
And I'd forgotten why.
You're right.
That was a boring story.
It is.
It's really, if people are looking for more,
I mean, there really isn't much more.
And I was, so I just kept that way.
I think also because Scotland that, you know,
I'm half Scottish, my parents were from Scotland.
I thought, you know, Scotland was one T in there.
Right.
That was mixed in too.
It's like asking a band about the song
and the lyrics behind a song.
Right.
And one day they'll tell you one way.
And then, you know, somebody else who's not even in the band or didn't even write the song and the lyrics behind a song. And one day they'll tell you one way and then somebody else
who's not even in the band or didn't
even write the song will have the story.
No, I think it's about this. They wrote it about this.
Now, I think I played this in episode
102, but it's just 40 seconds
of how you sounded back on CFNY.
Oh, geez.
CFNY's Department of Things You Plug
Into the Wall regrets to announce
that this coming Super Bowl Sunday your TV set will be on the fritz.
What?
Coincidentally, CFNY's Department of Stuff You Hear in the Air Sundays at 1 p.m. is pleased to announce a Super Bowl Sunday Music Magazine All-Star Sports Special.
Scott Turner will call the big shots of the sports world, talk about game predictions, play their requests,
and some other sports-related music.
Super Bowl Sunday Music Magazine All-Star Sports Special,
beginning at 1 p.m.,
following which we'll send someone over to fix your TV, really.
Okay, that's actually not you, right?
No, it's actually me, but it's about a show I did,
which was one of the foreground shows that we did back in the day.
Because as you explained in episode 102, there was a CRTC rule.
Yes.
That you had to have a certain number of hours.
This is why you had things like barometer and stuff on Q107, right?
These things show up to satisfy this rule.
Yeah, I had to look it up on my resume.
The official title I was for a time, the, hold on, where was it?
Oh, yeah.
Director of Foreground Programming for CFNY.
So that's where I came up with, you know, the Thursday 30, Live in Toronto.
Wow.
Friday Night High.
All of these shows were foreground shows.
So you had to, there were rules that you had to have so much of this programming.
And it was without surveillance.
So it was a program that had to not have any weather
or a time check on it.
It had to be on a topic or something.
So you had to have so many hours a week of these things.
And it drove a lot of radio stations and programmers nuts.
But I actually thought it was a good thing.
They got rid of them eventually.
But I think it was a good thing.
It made the radio interesting. I'm with you. I thoroughly enjoyed those programs. nuts but I actually thought it was a good thing they got rid of them eventually but I think it was a good thing it made radio
interesting. I'm with you I thoroughly
enjoyed those programs a recent guest
was Kim Hughes who is
in fact the aforementioned Strombo
takes over for Kim Hughes on your
show there live in Toronto. Right yeah
are you the original host of live in
Toronto? Yeah it was actually Ivor Hamilton
and I that kind of started that and it
was I think it started as a 15 minute show and then it went into a half hour show. And then it went
to an hour show and there was Ivor and Hamilton and I, and then May Potts and I did it for a
long time too. And that was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Loved doing the show. It was, yeah,
definitely one of the better shows on the station, I thought, anyway.
It was excellent. And a lot of FOTMs in that list of people.
By the way, so I do have your voice from CFNY,
so I played the wrong clip, but I'm glad I played it.
That was cool.
Here's Scott.
CFNY.
102 in Toronto.
At level 42.
Now, that sounds like the old level 42
that sounds great
children say a cut from the new LP
running in the family
also KTP
Kissing the Pink formerly
and Certain Things Are Likely
a remix of that
quite good and punchy
New Order
The Age of Consent
and James Scott
finishing with The Human League
The Heaven's 17
single contenders
and Mondo Rock, something new
called Primitive Law Rates, or something like that. Eric's writing is atrocious. Scott Turner
with you tonight, and finally some sunshine in Toronto. It's a really nice evening, and
of course the sun will shine until, oh gosh, maybe 8 o'clock, maybe a little later. And
I think we'll start the show off tonight with maybe a couple of requests.
See, I can break it down, but I'm kind of digging it.
You're going to take a request.
It sounds like the tape's going slow or something.
That's what with that announcing style
when we just had the headphones on around our head
a little too close,
and we liked the sound of our own voice a bit too much.
But that was FM, man, right?
Well, it was.
Yeah, it was back then.
And, you know, it's funny about there was a period of time
where that announcer voice just started not being so cool.
And I remember, you know, doing commercials,
reading spots at various radio stations,
and the producer would be like, you know, on the little button going,
Scott, you're sounding like an announcer.
You're sounding like an announcer again.
So you had to unlearn that sort of style, that FM
70s radio style.
Right, and a lot of that came from Chum FM in the 70s,
right, where Marsden was.
And he just kind of, you know, because
I just had Geetz Romo in here fairly
recently, and we were talking about the Pete and Geetz
show, and of course Donabee
was there, I think? Anyway, all these old cats.
And I think Brian Master was there,
who has become a good friend. Oh, what do you got there?
Yeah, this is,
maybe we'll post that online later.
Yeah, we'll have to take a pic.
I'll put it on my Facebook or Twitter.
Okay, so let me see what I'm looking at.
I'm going blind,
so I've got to bring it back here.
So it's an old ad for Chem FM.
Some people don't know that story.
I guess it started,
I think they were classical,
you know, FM radio.
Nobody listened to it in the 60s.
I think it was 1967, 68, 69.
They went from classical to playing, you know, rock music.
Right.
And nobody listened because, you know, people were listening to AM radio, especially in the 70s.
Anyway, there was a chum FM.
But in the early 70s, I guess it was, to mid-70s, they were progressive rock.
And it was a great radio station. That's where I first heard
David Marsden, John Donabee
idolized and people like that.
I thought, you know, when I wanted to get into radio
and at first I was listening
to Dave Marsden, I loved Dave Marsden, but I couldn't
be David Marsden, that voice and that
style. And he used to say things like,
you know, my brown paper bag, let's see what we
have here. And it was say things like, you know, my brown paper bag, let's see what we have here. And it was free form.
And, you know, a lot of the jocks
got some freedom to play,
you know, whatever they wanted.
And it was all over the map.
But I thought, oh, I can't be.
So I sort of emulated my style
after John Donabee.
Have you had John Donabee on?
I have.
He was amazing.
I haven't listened to that yet.
I need to do that.
He was amazing.
Yeah.
And he was a great influence on Chum FM back in those days.
Well, speaking of Chum FM in later days, not those days,
but I know we're going to talk about 1050 for a moment here.
I am trying to get Donabee and Roger Ashby to come in together.
They're good buds.
And that's a plan, Stan.
So tell me, because I see in the corner of my eye,
I see all these Chum things.
And I'm holding a bunch too, because I've come, a guy named Doug Thompson, who's a name you might know, came on and talked about the history of 1050 Chum.
There's a whole episode of Toronto Mic'd recently, a retrospective from the 50s to like when Tom Rivers is on the air.
Yeah.
So tell me what you have there.
Well, you know, I grew up listening to Chum AM,
and I actually, the ones I brought along were Roger Ashby's on the cover here.
Sure.
Because we had him out.
But I worked just recently for K-Fun, which is a classic hit station in Kitchener.
Right.
Which is, you know, like classic hits is like your boom in Toronto here, right?
Right.
So, and that's where he started.
Roger Ashby started at K-Fun, C-K-K-W.
And so we had him out to do a show just about a year ago, I guess it was.
And it was really fun to have him, you know, the guy that I idolized growing up as a kid,
listening to AM radio.
Oh, for sure.
One of the reasons I brought it, because it goes in with some of the jams today.
It kind of tells a story around that. But essentially
is you could pull, yeah, you've got
one too. I got an
Ashby too. The cool thing about Chum
AM in those days, and this is the
ones I have are like 1970,
1972 here, but you could open
any of them. And the cool thing about Chum
back in those days, this Chum AM,
was the variety of music you got.
So you could go, I could just look at this,
and you go from, there's the Partridge family.
Wow.
And then you've got Canned Heat, Van Morrison,
and then Smokey Robinson, and everything in between.
But Scott, that's the top 40 I grew up with,
like in the 80s, where you'd have Def Leppard
right beside George Michael, right beside, I don't know,
Bill DeVoe or something like that.
Yeah, it's like something happened where it got
like hyper-focused on particular
genres, and you really don't
get that anymore, right?
And then when Classic Hits came along, and it was
a Canadian that came
up with the idea, and the famous
stories, he was sitting around a campfire.
Here's a Cooper, but we talked a campfire. Here's a Cooper.
We talked about Aaron Davis.
There's a Mike Cooper.
Mike Cooper, yeah.
There you go.
Anyway.
So, you know, the classic hits format, this is, I forget kind of when that all started,
but there was a famous story about a campfire and people are picking their songs and one
person wants ACDC and somebody wants Led Zeppelin and then somebody wants Madonna and somebody
wants, you know wants Janet Jackson.
Right.
And he was kind of thinking,
well, gee, that would be a great radio station format.
But radio at the time was like,
you can't do that.
You can't play ACDC and play Madonna back to back.
That's two different formats.
And he was like, well, why not?
And anybody you know,
we all have our own collections
and they're all over the map.
If you looked at anybody's collection,
they'll have a little bit of this,
a little bit of that.
Anyway, so...
Is this the Jack format?
So that's basically the Jack format.
Yeah, it started with Bob,
I think, in Winnipeg
and then Jack
and then, you know,
Boomer is an example of that.
Right, Boomer.
Yes, yeah.
Cool stuff, man.
So I realize now,
before we even get to Jams,
I have so much I want to cover with you.
Sure. I want to say, so the last time I saw you was not when you came by for episode 102 i actually
saw you in the corner of my eye i was very busy but at the opera house uh we had the party for
marty yes and i could see you in the corner but i was you know i did three hours straight no break
or anything right so i had uh pina was very nice to help wrangle guests and stuff and i could see in the corner i go oh there's scott turner but i couldn't like get you on a mic
but i just want you to know i was i would have liked you on a mic yes and i want i wanted to
tell you too that i did see you busy and every time i looked over there were you had a guest and
and and i had so many people i had to talk to and i was running around it was chaos so sorry
didn't get a chance i would have booted anybody except May Potts.
I think that's my rule.
And yeah, Ivor was there, Ivor Hamilton.
And just coincidentally, before we press record,
I told you that this is actually the anniversary of Ivor Hamilton kicking out the jam.
So I think it's appropriate.
On this day.
Yes, on this day.
Awesome.
So I'm glad you're here.
What song did he pick?
You have to listen.
I'm surprised.
Yes, I know.
I missed that story, Ivor.
I got to link you to the
Ivor Hamilton kicks out the jams.
You get some catching up to do.
Okay.
Before we get into it though,
I wanted to ask for your,
because somebody passed away,
I wanted to ask you about.
Sure.
We'll do name that tune.
We'll see how long it takes you
to name this tune.
Oh yeah, it's Gang of name this tune. Oh, yeah.
Gang of four.
Right.
It's funny.
Those first beats almost sounded like...
Can you play it from the beginning again?
Yeah.
It reminded me of another beat.
Oh, boy.
It's reminiscent of a few songs, actually.
Yeah.
That opening part.
Yes, it does.
It'll strike me in a minute.
Yeah, me too.
Yeah, Gang of Four and, you know, one of my favorite albums for anybody that's just heard about this passing.
I've forgotten his name.
Andy Gill.
Yeah, Andy.
this passing, I've forgotten his name. Andy Gill.
Yeah, Andy.
The album Entertainment
is just absolutely one of the greatest albums
ever out of the 80s.
I think it was 80s or late 70s.
I mean, probably early 80s.
Entertainment, great album.
Never did get a chance to see them live,
but I think they fit into that post-punk sound in the late 70s, early 80s mostly.
You don't hear a lot about Gang of Four these days.
No, I think they were touring for a while.
I don't know if it was the original members.
And that's semi-recently they were out touring.
And I've heard they're great live.
Just never got a chance to see them live.
But I think I had every one of their albums, EPs.
Entertainment was the one for me and Thrax
and a few other tracks on there. The whole album
is just a great album. This is I Love a Man
in Uniform, which you probably spun
back in the day on CFN1.
Definitely in the clubs too, for sure.
I have a question all the way from
White Rock. Have you
ever been to White Rock? Yes. Beautiful place.
Yeah, it is. I was there last August.
This is, for those
who don't know, it's just like very south-south
of Vancouver. It's like a suburb, right?
It's part of Surrey, I think.
The bigger part is called Surrey and then White Rock.
And that's, they had like
Expo 86 was stuff
happening there. I don't know. They had a nice boardwalk there.
A big White Rock, literally.
But it's a very nice place to hang out.
Oh, and by the way, I was going to say, I think they're getting like 20 centimeters of snow in Vancouver today.
And I lived for about two years in Lynn Valley, which is up on North Van side.
And I rented this house, and I remember, and it's snowing, and this, of course, if you don't know, it rarely snows in Vancouver.
They're not ready for that.
And it's certainly not 20 centimeters.
So I'm looking out my window.
I'm seeing all these kids lining up down the hill here.
So I'm on a house that's sort of halfway down a hill.
And these kids are lining up, and I'm like, what's going on?
This is very weird.
So I go outside, and I had to ask them.
I said, what's going on?
He says, oh, we're waiting for the cars to come and start sliding down the road.
Oh, yeah, no snow tires.
No, yeah, and it's a spectacle.
And sure enough, there was a car that slid right across my lawn and into a tree.
And I have a photo.
I was trying to find the photo because the car was a loaner car from a collision place,
a body collision company.
Oh, yeah.
And it went right into a tree.
Because it's twofold. We don't have
snow tires. We don't have the salt trucks
ready. And we don't have
experience driving in this condition.
So the drivers aren't sure exactly what to do.
It's chaos. It's absolutely chaos. So nobody
invests in any kind of snow or even
all-seasons tires. And then, yeah, any of the
buses and trucks. Oh, buses
just can't go up hills.
Right. Well, hopefully they're't go up hills. Right.
Wow. Hopefully they're okay.
But this is for, so this guy's name,
I don't know if you've heard of this name before, Neil Morrison. Yes! Brother Bill.
Brother Bill says,
I'd ask
Scott Turner why he wore a
white snake t-shirt in
1989 and what
was it like during the Turner and Hooch days
on CFNY?
So, big Whitesnake fan?
So Whitesnake had to be
just a pompous joke of mine.
And here's the thing,
I think that the universe
has a way of paying you back.
So back in my days,
what year did he say that was?
89.
So certainly my CF my days, what year did he say that was? 89. 89. So certainly my CFNY days, the White Snakes, those kind of hair bands.
Sure, I remember well.
Were like just, I had no respect for them.
I hated the music.
I thought it was the worst recorded music.
But even Guns N' Roses, or were they okay?
I hated them too.
So any of that stuff, I hated.
So fast forward in my career, and it's, I were they okay? I hated them too. Oh. So any of that stuff, I hate it. So, you know, fast forward in my career,
and it's, I don't know what year it is now,
when I started.
So I get a job at Dave FM,
which is now Dave Rocks in Kitchener.
Kitchener.
Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo.
And what I discovered about the market
is they love hair bands.
They love that music.
And so we had to play that on Dave FM,
not Dave Rocks.
And, you know, we did music tests.
I'm like, there's no way
that people really like this stuff.
So we did a bunch of music tests and research stuff.
Sure enough, the stuff just scores through the roof.
It just goes like this
when you're watching the test scores.
Yeah.
So what happened is in my years in Kitchener and just recently at K-Fun is I've absolutely learned to respect and even enjoy some of that music.
Oddly.
Yeah, you know, there's a guilty pleasure in it, right?
I guess so.
I get it, though.
I get it.
I get it. It's still not my go-to, right? I guess so. I get it, though. I get it. I get it.
It's still not my go-to music, but I get it.
I get it.
Right.
So I think that's, it was a kind of, you know, being...
Ironic.
Rude, yeah.
Oh, you're being ironic.
Yes.
Sure enough, yeah.
Right.
Now, tell me about Turner and Hooch.
What was the second?
Yeah, Turner and Hooch.
You know, I'm not sure other than the movie,
which by the way, I think they're coming out.
I think Netflix or Crave or somebody is doing an actual TV series.
Oh, but not with Tom Hanks.
Not sure.
That would be quite the coup.
It's probably Netflix.
It's coming out as a series again.
But yeah, in that movie, if you haven't seen it,
the character's name is not the dog,
but his name, Tom Hanks, is Scott Turner.
And so I don't know, other than that.
Well, you know, Brother Bill is being goofy.
So what did he say, the Turner and Hooch era?
He says, what was it like during the Turner and Hooch days?
Hooch days, yeah.
But that wasn't that, I mean, Tom Hanks,
that wasn't a particularly popular Tom Hanks movie.
I mean, I don't know. I guess all the Tom Hanks movies were popular back then. But you don't hear a I mean, Tom Hanks, that wasn't a particularly popular Tom Hanks movie. I mean, I don't know.
I guess all the Tom Hanks movies were popular back then,
but you don't hear a lot about Turner and Hooch.
No, I don't know.
So he might be referencing something else
that I'm just not remembering right now.
Okay, well, here's, let me ask you this.
So I'm now producing The Humble and Fred Show.
Yes.
Now, before Howard got here, thank you.
Let's see if I can make chicken salad out of chicken shit.
Is that what you're thinking?
I kid, of course.
I'm allowed to do that now.
So, okay.
In 89, Howard comes from Montreal
where he was doing a show of Jeff Lumby.
He comes to be humble and friend.
Prior to that,
there's a gap between Pete and Geats.
And I hope I have my timelines right.
You'll tell me.
That's why I brought my resume
because I forget.
So between Pete and Geats
and humble and friend.
And again, this also changes
because Howard quits
and goes to Mix 99.9 for about a also changes a bit because Howard quits and goes to Mix 99.9
for about a year
and a bit. And then he comes back.
So is there a period,
is it during that gap that you are
with Fred doing the morning show?
Yes, it's somewhere around 1990,
91 maybe. Yeah, 90 sounds
about right, yeah.
So, yeah, we talked about, I think I talked
about it on the last episode it
was a giant mistake because you know i but i had to do it because it was one of those pinnacles in
radio to do morning show radio and i you know somehow thought i was good um in terms of an idea
sure and then i i think i i was very good at convincing people uh somehow i put these great
i was good at presentations.
You know, I do a good PowerPoint.
Yeah, I see.
You're very prepared.
Yeah, well, I do a lot of notes.
You'd be a good manager.
So I think I impressed Reiner Schwartz.
I think he might have been the PD at the time,
and somehow I talked him into letting me do it.
And, you know, I always apologized to Fred and May
because I just think it was in the wrong place.
And I was like kind of a music head,
and I like talking about music and things,
but a morning show needs to be other things.
And I've just never, you know, been really good at that.
So I think ultimately I learned in my radio career
that I'm good as a programmer.
I'm, you know, I'm better behind the scenes.
But you know, there's a, right now,
I mean, maybe not just right now,
but I find myself craving
what you're describing.
Somebody who really
likes the music,
has a passion for it,
and is knowledgeable
on the subject,
you get that,
you get that from a strombo.
You know,
the late great Dave Bookman
would give you that.
Right.
You know,
that's,
I'm sort of,
instead of just,
you know,
like that whole kind of,
you know,
shtick from the morning show
where it's very shallow on the music.
Like I personally am craving what you're describing.
Like, so that sounds like it's right up my alley.
Interesting thing though, just quickly on that morning show story is that, so yeah, I think when that's when my days were over.
So that would have been 92.
So it might've been 91.
It was about a year I did the morning show.
And I think it was June of 92 when i got the boot
i was not renewed that was when you know there was an era of change at cfny yes let's talk about
that area real quick here because okay uh you mentioned reiner schwartz who kind of kind of
comes in to mop up some of the mess i suppose from the whole like you you'll know it better than me
but the mclean hunter youunter... You guys were playing Madonna,
basically. There's a period in 89,
maybe? There was, yeah, and I can't remember.
It wasn't that long, and I can't
remember the exact year, but there was a time
because there was always
pressure. It was the tough thing for
an alternative radio station because
it's only going to get so large.
You need to be
more mainstream to reach a bigger.
So there's always a fight to,
are we going to play this song or this artist or not?
You know,
so that we,
we had these constant battles at the radio station.
So,
and I think there's somewhere in the consultants and somebody said,
Hey,
we,
this is what we got to do.
And next thing you know,
you're playing Phil Collins.
Essentially.
Yeah.
It was very weird.
Very weird.
But I know there were protests.
Like I've got the clippings and we,
you know,
I've had people on the showings and we you know i've
had people on the show like uh you know alan cross and people and now and and uh like literal
protests to save the spirit of radio because this this great vision that david marsden kind of built
uh was completely gone when you tune in in the morning and they're playing like a song from
madonna's true blue or something like yeah it was very strange i think the only
respite was that i was doing the evening show,
and I think they left us alone after 6 o'clock at night,
except for the Thursday 30.
I remember getting in a lot of shit for this,
because the Thursday 30, one week I was forced,
and I think I put the Thursday 30 together and all the songs,
and they said, you have to put some of these new songs in there.
And I'm like, no, no, no.
So Madonna got in there.
And I go on the air saying, I can't believe I have to play this.
Did you get in trouble for that?
Oh, yeah, I did.
Yeah.
They said, you can't say that.
Yeah, they were not happy about that.
It's interesting that your Thursday 30 lasted until this past summer when it disappeared without
fanfare like it just disappeared in fact i don't think anyone noticed until uh mark weisblatt from
12 36 tipped me off uh hey there's no more thursday 30s it was like the the end of this
era that you started that must that could be the longest running feature show on the station yeah
because it goes way back.
And I'm thinking of all the people who's,
and it's been a while to be honest,
but I used to listen to that Thursday 30.
We mentioned Martin Streak.
He was doing it with Pete Fowler for a while,
but there's a lot of, it was a big deal at one time.
It just seems like, and it's gone.
Any thoughts on that?
Huge success.
And again, that was part of my job
as the director of foreground programming. I loved getting that on my business card remember business cards we used to have
those and uh so the idea was to come up with this feature show uh and it ended up being hugely
successful i think one of the battles was at the time was that you know we're uh alternative and
you know having a countdown show was you know oh that was taboo right but i made
the point but no there are the best of our songs you know we need to there's no place to have all
of the best of what we play yeah showcase it exactly so uh i thought i think we can do this
i think it'll be respected and i think and of course the ratings were just you know one of the
top rated shows on the station it was was huge. The ratings were fantastic.
And so I specifically came up with the Thursday 30 to avoid it being 40 or top 40
because top 40 radio was like the evil beast.
Oh, that's interesting.
So that's why it was called the Thursday 30.
I said, let's do 30 songs
because it's not representing anything near the top 40.
Very, very interesting.
So that's why that name.
It's funny because a lot of people say,
hey, because I'm friendly with your old buddy there,
David Marsden,
and they're like,
why don't you get him to kick out the jams?
And I've asked David,
and he doesn't believe in such things.
Like he doesn't believe in a top 10.
Yeah, yeah.
So he won't do it because in principle,
he's so against the concept.
Yeah, interesting.
Oh, yeah. Well, okay. But you know, hey, he's so against the concept. Yeah. Interesting. Oh yeah.
But you know,
Hey,
that's,
that's,
that's fine.
It's his decision.
Now,
uh,
I want to talk about the most recent time.
The most recent time we could hear your voice on 102.1 was that spirit of radio Sunday,
which guys,
my age and gals,
my age quite loved.
Yes.
Um,
we, age and gals my age quite loved yes um please tell us what happened to that fantastic block of programming on sundays so i i did i think it was when we did this five years ago it was still
on the air it was still on the air okay so um so i thought i had maybe explained this no you did
but on the phone to me oh i talked to you to you on the phone right after they canceled it.
No, your episode predates the cancellation of Spirit of Radio Sundays.
So in this past weekend, it was five years since the final show.
That's one of my songs, my jams today.
I was going to sort of talk around that.
It's up to you.
I don't want to steal your thunder.
If you promise me, it's coming later and you don't
forget okay yes yes let's do that because a couple of songs kind of relate to that well in real radio
they would do these these teasers right to keep people tuned in so if you want to hear uh scott's
thoughts on what happened to the spirit of radio sundays on uh 102.1 the edge we're going to talk
about it yeah because i do want to talk about the talk about The Edge. And I knew you might ask about that too,
just because you mentioned David Marsden.
And for those people that don't know,
haven't checked it out,
is, you know,
nythespirit.com.
Check it out.
David's there.
He's doing what he's done for many, many years,
the freeform radio style.
And I'm surprised.
I'll talk to him to see if he'll come in and...
Kick out the jam.
Yes, because I would love to really know for the career he's had,
because we talked about Chum Radio and that.
Dave Mickey.
Yeah, and I didn't even know that until many, many years later.
I'm already working at CFNY, and I didn't know he was Dave Mickey.
That's 590.
So he was on 590 as Dave Mickey,
and when I did that retrospective on 1050 Chum with Doug Thompson,
we actually played some Dave Mickey
because it really influenced what they were doing at 1050.
It's crazy.
And especially when you compare that to the David Marsden
that I heard and grew up with on Chum FM.
This was one of my idols.
I'm like, this guy is so cool.
And then when I met him and I got to work at CFNY, I'm like, this guy is so cool. And then when I met him and I got to work at CFNY,
I was like, this guy's so cool.
He really is.
So I would love to see from all of those different radio years
and all that he's done in music for him to kind of pick some favorites.
You and me both, brother.
If anything, David, just tell some of the stories.
He's got so many stories.
Actually, there's one coming up.
We're going to play Japan in one of my jams.
But David tells a great story about Japan, the band,
coming out to the old radio station on Kennedy Road
and going across the road to Loblaws.
It's a very funny story.
Okay, so he did a speech at the library,
like the reference, I think it was a reference library.
And it was a reference library.
And it was recorded as a special episode of Toronto Mic'd.
So you can hear his presentation
in its entirety
as an episode of Toronto Mic'd.
Ah, did he tell that story?
Yes.
In fact, when I saw you pick Japan,
I thought of him in that story
and I knew where it came from.
So before I give you some gifts for coming
and before we get to these jams,
I want to ask you
about one of my favorite pastimes,
which is cycling. I love
to cycle. Last time you were here, you
confessed that you had, I think you said, a $6,500
bike or something like that.
Yeah, so honestly, and thank
God for Contra in radio.
Have you heard that term?
Yeah, where you barter, basically. Yeah, kind of.
Yeah, and I got that from my Evanoff years in radio.
I'd never heard the term.
And so it was basically trading airtime for products and services.
So I, because I would not spend that kind of money on a bicycle,
although maybe today I would because I have to.
But I got a bit of a deal through the radio station at the time,
Dave FM at the time, Dave Rocks now in Kitchener.
Hey, KW, what's up?
By the way, are you on the air right now anywhere?
No, just right now with you.
If we want to call that on the air.
You want to be my new co-host?
Yeah.
I can pay you with beer and pasta.
Let's talk after.
So, the bicycle, we were talking about the bicycle.
Right, cycling.
So, yes, I did have this expensive bike.
I still have it, by the way.
And you and I compare because we do keep in touch occasionally.
Yeah.
I was comparing cycling notes with you.
And I think, so I'm texting you or emailing you.
And I'm like, because I was really proud of my kilometers this past year.
And I knew in the past that you do a lot of Ks.
I record every ride on an app.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Every single ride. That's awesome. I do keep my notes, too. I you do a lot of Ks. I record every ride on an app. Yeah, that's awesome. Every single ride.
That's awesome.
I do keep my notes, too.
I've got a Garmin in that soap.
And I'm like, let's see how many Toronto Mike has this year.
And I remember I said, I actually have my notes here somewhere.
Okay, yeah, cool.
So I did this past year, 2019, 2,113 kilometers.
I remember reaching out to you.
I'm like, yeah, so how many did you do, Toronto Mike?
And how many was it?
Well, that 2,000 plus would be two months for me.
So what was the final number?
So I have a few things.
This is going to sound a little nerdy or whatever,
but I'm going to just do it.
We might lose people here, but we'll keep it short.
I'll keep it short, I promise,
because there's lots of good things coming.
Hang in there.
It's very important to me, for some reason,
to get at least 500 kilometers in every calendar month,
no matter what the rain, whatever the conditions are,
even if it's February or January.
So it has been years since I recorded less than 500 kilometers
in a calendar month.
That's awesome.
I think I had 600 plus
in January 2020.
So now, of course, now you're asking me
how I think I probably
I probably, I got to check
my archives there, but we're talking like
11,000 maybe
for 2019. That's awesome.
That's awesome. But every day
You're out every day. I did 30
yesterday. Good for you. Well're out every day. I did 30 yesterday.
Good for you.
I have... Well, and we were talking before this little episode here.
You've got three bikes.
See, I might have one nice, fancy, smart bike.
You've got three wheels here.
But they're all about in that $700 range.
But you're right.
And one of them I do share with my teenage son.
But you're right, because one of them has snow tires on it.
So if it snows tomorrow, I will still get out there and
go for a ride.
He's got studs on his wheels. That's pretty
cool. I just have to be careful. I can't go out
that often. I do ride through the winter. I've
got all the gear. It's pretty funny.
Yeah, yeah. If you dress right, the conditions
don't bother you at all.
No, not at all.
So I love that you are out there doing that a
number. That's a huge number.
But I have one other number, see, because where
I live in North Burlington, which is a great place for cycling
by the way, and that's one of the reasons I love it there.
So how many meters?
See, I got
20,824 meters
of hill climbing. Oh, hills.
Yeah, you'll kill me in hills.
There's some nice hills there. You're right.
You know what, for anybody who wants to really challenge,
if anybody cycles and you want to challenge, Rattlesnake Point.
Try to get up that.
Can I tell you?
I did it once.
Did you?
Well, is that how you get to the Mohawk College?
Is that up there?
Or am I in the wrong part of the...
No, I think you're in the wrong...
Okay.
Well, it's up Appleby.
It's Appleby and Dairy Road.
There's a couple of different ways to get up on the escarpment there.
Okay.
And one of the most difficult ones, and they've actually had some actual road races
where you go up there. It's really
brutal. It's like
a 20 gradient all the way up.
I did the Ride to Conquer Cancer
and we went from Ontario Place to
I took the long route. So you go to
Milton and then you come across and you go to
you end up at Mohawk College. And there was
a huge climb. That might be it.
And I think that's it. It could be.
And that's the only time I did it, though. And you're
right. It's quite the climb. Especially
because all my rides start from here.
And if I go east or west,
there's no hills east or west from here.
So you're right. You'd kill me on the hills. I will invite
you out. You should come out for a ride.
A fun ride. And I actually go out. One of my cycling
buddies I should shout out to is...
I don't know if you remember Alternate Earl for old CFNY fans.
I only know Earl Jive.
So he had a helper, an assistant, and they called him, or we called him on the air, Alternative Earl.
Okay.
It's Earl Veal, who I cycle with.
I know him through Freddie P.
Who I cycle with. I know him through Freddie P.
We're good buddies, and I'm actually seeing him on Friday for lunch,
and we go cycling, and we have a great time.
All right, so hopefully we didn't lose everybody of the cycling.
Yeah, sorry about that.
Scott, keep riding.
I'm a big advocate, and I love that you do it all year round,
and don't worry about it.
20,000 meters right there.
No, I can't compete with that.
You're the hill man.
You're the hill master here.
Tell me, I have a lasagna for you from Palma Pasta.
They make fantastic lasagna, palmapasta.com.
You can find them on Skip the Dishes.
You can get your, they do catering for home and business.
They're fantastic.
They hosted the last Toronto Mic Listener Experience.
But you're going to give it to your girlfriend, right?
Yes.
Or your wife.
Wife, sorry, yes.
I got the title wrong.
Okay.
Yeah.
Because tell, tell us why you will not eat the delicious lasagna from
Palma Pasta.
Probably because it has cheese on it, right?
Definitely has cheese on it.
Okay.
Yeah.
So no, my, my wife loves meat and cheese.
So I'm the vegan of the family.
Well, basically, so here's a quick, so 35 years actually it was uh 1985 that i started
um as a a vegan and at the time it was a vegetarian because i didn't even know the term
vegan i think that came out later the problem was very quick story was that um when you say
vegetarian people are going what type of it did you see so you still eat chicken don't you
or you still eat fish you know and so for finally this term vegan came out which wasn't exactly what i am but that's the one i use
because people like oh vegan so you don't touch anything i had to explain it with my mother
because my mother i'd come over for something to eat when i'd just gone vegetarian and my mother
like well can i get you some salmon let's make you a salmon sandwich. I go, no, I don't eat salmon.
She goes, okay, how about tuna?
I go, no, no, no, no.
So finally, the only way my mother could understand it was anything with a face.
Gotcha.
But I find, so vegetarian, I understand no meat or whatever,
but vegan means you can't have the cheese because it's dairy.
Yes.
But that means you can't have eggs?
Correct. Okay. cheese uh because it's dairy yes that means you can't have eggs correct okay so that means if somebody offered you some bread and an egg was made in the process of making the bread that's
not something you would consume correct so this is where i think i'm truly a kind of uh vegetarian
so but i had to use the term vegan for so many years because people that's where people i i
hated explaining no i don't you know use dairy i don't eat eggs and I don't eat chicken and fish or whatever.
So vegan helped do that.
But truthfully, a vegan should not use any animal products.
So I have a leather belt.
I have some leather shoes.
So that's one of the things.
And the only other things I cheat with is I do use occasionally, but not often, is butter.
of the other things I cheat with is I do use occasionally, but not often, is butter. And I still occasionally eat milk chocolate, but I do prefer dark chocolate. And that's my kind of go-to
is dark chocolate, but milk chocolate has dairy in it. So that's the other. So you've given yourself
a few exceptions. Those, yeah. So I'm mostly a vegan, but not a pure vegan. And for me, it's mostly about,
I just don't like the idea of killing and eating animals.
And then also, it's the carbon footprint thing,
just that how much energy, land use,
it goes into producing meat.
I know people have heard this a hundred times,
but the single best thing this society can do
to help with climate change is to stop eating meat. I know people have heard this a hundred times, but if the single best thing this society can do for,
uh,
to help with climate change is to stop eating meat.
Like that's the single greatest thing we could do,
but.
Or just reduce it.
I mean,
yeah,
but yes,
yes.
Yeah.
Or yeah.
Well,
reducing is better than nothing.
Yes,
of course.
But,
uh,
you're right.
And I'm,
you know,
I,
I myself enjoy a meat lasagna.
So I'm, uh, well, you know, just to enjoy a meat lasagna. So I'm.
Well, you know, just to be on the other side of things, because I haven't read, you know, when I read, did a lot of research back in the mid 80s when I became vegetarian.
And that's where I made up my mind.
But I didn't follow through the years.
I didn't follow new research and there's been some research and i've just started doing that recently because there's been a lot of research lately that you know um um meat or the uh what's
what's the the term i'm looking at cholesterol what do they uh call it there's a certain thing
that's causing um quote-unquote high cholesterol anyway it's meat um things like butter, and that are not as bad as once thought, based on some new research that's making the rounds.
So, like, for example...
Sorry, no, you please continue.
I was just going to say, like, I have high blood pressure, high blood pressure, which is really...
No, not high blood pressure, high cholesterol, thank you.
Gotcha. not high blood pressure, high cholesterol. But there's a lot of new studies out that, you know, we used to say there's your good cholesterol,
I think it's the HDL, and there's the bad cholesterol, the LDL.
The truth is the way they're doing tests today,
you can break down the bad cholesterol into three parts.
And when you normally go for your blood tests,
you need to get a more conclusive blood test,
which is something I need to do.
Because within the bad cholesterol,
there's actually good parts of the bad cholesterol,
if that makes any sense.
Sure.
We probably should change the topic
because this is going to get really boring.
But your wife is going to love the lasagna
I'm going to send you home with.
So thank you, Palma Pasta.
But I do have something for you as a vegan.
I have a six-pack of fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery.
In fact, you're lucky.
You've got one of the winter ales in here.
These things are fantastic.
Oh, that's nice.
Yeah, that looks delicious.
Thank you.
I will enjoy that tonight.
Fantastic.
Please enjoy.
Wonderful people at Great Lakes Brewery.
They've got a retail store not far from here, but you can find them in LCBOs.
And if you ever go into like a bar
or like a drinking establishment
and they don't have Great Lakes,
you gotta, on tap,
you gotta rough them up a bit and say,
hey, you guys need to get Great Lakes in here.
This is the move, you know,
contact Great Lakes Brewery and hook them up there.
So thank you, Great Lakes.
Thank you, Palma Pasta.
I have a Toronto Mike sticker.
I had it here.
Did you move it? Do I have to get Mike sticker I had it here did you move it
do I have to get you a new one here
oh here you are oh that's for me too
for your bicycle you gotta put that Toronto Mike
sticker on your bike excellent
Alan Cross said he has a garbage can
in his office where he puts like radio stickers
from around the world
and he's put the Toronto Mike sticker there so
thank you sticker you I actually
since I last recorded,
I attended the grand opening
of the Sticker Museum
at 677 Queen Street West.
I saw the photos with you,
Humble.
Yeah, Humble was there too.
And FOTM Cam Gordon
from Twitter Canada.
And it's really unbelievable.
Like, you just go to 677 Queen
and, you know,
it's all free
to go check out the museum. They don't charge admission or anything. And check this out. It's just really, really unbelievable. Like you just go to six 77 queen and you know, it's all free to go check out the museum.
They don't charge admission or anything and check this out.
It's,
it's just,
it's just really,
really cool.
Lots of nostalgia there and everything.
So check out the museum and then get,
go to sticker you.com to get,
uh,
stickers,
decals,
you know,
I got the magnets,
anything,
uh,
temporary tattoos.
It's,
it's all great quality stuff.
Uh,
use sticker you,
they're great supporters of
Toronto Mic'd. And I have a little clip I'm going to play from Banjo Dunk. Banjo Dunk,
if you heard the Aaron Davis episode, you heard Banjo goes way back with Aaron's husband. He was
in the band. So it was just such a small world story. But here's Banjo Dunk. This is Banjo Dunk.
And for the last few weeks,
you've been hearing my ads on Toronto Mic'd
about the Big Stompin' Tom show coming up on April 16th, 2020.
But there's another Banjo Dunk production that's happening very soon.
My music buddy Douglas John Cameron and I,
known internationally as Doogie and Dunn,
are going to be performing in Oakville at the Moonshine Cafe on February 27th,
not too far from Toronto Mike Head Office.
So, if you live in Toronto, Oakville, Mississauga, Burlington, Milton,
and surrounding areas, you'll find all the information you need
at themoonshinecafe.com.
We look forward to seeing you on February 27th.
Scott, he's talking to you.
Burlington's invited to the...
Excellent.
Yeah.
By the way, there's a book I have for you as well.
My Good Times of Stompin' Tom.
This is by Duncan Fremlin.
Duncan Fremlin is Banjo Dunk.
So take that here.
I'll show the world.
So here's a book.
Banjo Dunk's book.
It's fantastic.
You ever met Stompin' Tom? I have not. No, and you never will So take that here. I'll show the world. So here's a book, Banjo-Dunk's book. It's fantastic.
You ever met Stompin' Tom?
I have not.
No, and you never will because he's passed away.
Yes.
But you can read the book.
It's really cool tales about working with Stompin' Tom.
But I love Bud the Spud.
He's one of my favorites.
Absolutely, absolutely.
The bright red mud rolling down the highway smiling.
The buds are big in the back of that rig.
They're from Prince Edward Island.
Well done, Scott Turner.
Very good.
And one final message, important message, all FOTMs,
perk up your ears.
If you have any Toronto real estate questions,
please text Toronto Mike.
It's all one word, Toronto Mike, to 59559.
The Keitner Group have partnered with Toronto Mike to fuel the real talk,
and I sincerely believe Austin Keitner can help you out.
So anything real estate related, 59559. That's where you text Toronto Mike and engage Austin,
and I would appreciate it.
Now, Scott, we're going to start with your first jam.
So let's kick it up.
It's a very long jam.
So I'll bring it down early on.
And then we'll get to hear your fantastic voice.
But here we go.
Oh, yes.
I got to ask you a question.
Oh, that voice.
Boy, that was funny.
Actually, two things.
Actually, before I begin.
Unless it's going to organically come out during the jam kicking.
But do we know where Chris Shepard is?
Oh, so the only thing I can tell you is Chris was last seen,
his last knowabouts, whereabouts, Costa Rica.
And I was pretty close to getting in touch with him
because a good friend of ours was down there
and had just come back from Costa Rica to come back to live in Toronto.
And he actually gave me a phone number because Chris
had a, see the funny thing about Chris
for those that knew him back in the
day, he never had a cell phone.
So it was like
I heard that Elton John recently
doesn't have a cell phone. Ron Hawkins from
Lowest of the Low does not
carry a cell phone. Yeah. So in like Elton
John's case, he'd have his assistants do
all those sort of things. And so Chris, like Chris never had a car chris shepherd never had a car he never had a
cell phone so he or he didn't have a cell phone for a while anyway so the only way to get hold
of him it was through other people or at certain locations or call them at home on a landline that
sort of thing so anyway so chris had picked up this phone down there and that's kind of how you
could get hold of him and i did call it a number of times but lost contact with him and the person that had seen him in costa rica had lost contact
with him too but i do know that he was down there steve towers is a guy that used to work for
one of the sound companies in toronto had moved down there he was a guy that that we worked
together doing um in a lot of the rave productions in in toronto in the 90s steve towers was part of
that and chris and steve were good friends actually steve towers used to be married to
and i've forgotten her name um part of the ownership of the opera house so um anyway steve
towers went down i think so chris was kind of connected with steve towers down in costa rica
and for those that don't know, the club scene,
like Brazil and Costa Rica
are one of the hotspots for a huge club scene.
And that may be one of the reasons.
Maybe he's doing some gigs down there.
But a number of people that are fairly close to him
have lost contact with him.
He's a mysterious guy
because he also has these,
I would say, mysterious credentials, right?
Like he talked about having PhDs. Yeah, you hear, like he's talking about, and I mean, I mean, you could
search this stuff. Like I'm not, I'm a skeptical, you know, who am I to judge the great Chris
Shepard?
Yeah. And Chris, you know, he talked to him and I talked about that when he was doing
that. And I do know he was doing a lot of studying research around that. And he was
working with some people at one of the hospitals in Toronto.
And I ran into him coming out of them once downtown just randomly.
So I know he was doing it, but you could never totally believe Chris's stories.
He did love to embellish things.
So I bet there was some truth in that,
but I think you like typically
chris shepherd who was over embellished just like his uh the way he speaks right that's right that's
not uh organic yeah i think a little bit i think there you know you have to remember this you know
just like hearing my voice there i think there was there's a little bit of it being put on and
there's a you're you're sort of there's a little bit that you might i mean i'm not putting anything
on i just want to know i would sound much if i was i'd sound much cooler than this but uh
but if i start talking like this right yeah so he's not from england right so in yeah that would
come out a little bit and i think you know he's it was a persona that you put on oh i loved it
like that's why i want him on the show uh full of respect and interest in in his story in his
journey so when he got excited you or you'd meet him somewhere,
you know, so that guy would come out.
But it was a fascinating era of Chris Shepard on the radio.
Yeah, Chris Shepard on a Friday night.
I used to record it to cassette.
That was like nothing I'd ever heard,
the overnights with Chris Shepard.
Yeah, live from whatever, the live to airs, I guess.
Because he took over for Marsden on that stuff, right?
Well, Saturday Nights,
and I think which was a studio show for a while,
which I think David Marsden did.
But David wanted to move on
and focus on some other things.
And Chris was this up-and-coming guy
that I think first was the DJ for Earl Jive.
And then, you know, he certainly had a flair and a talent and a personality.
And, you know, he was put on the air.
I think it was David Marsden that put Chris on the air.
And it just went from there.
Play some Skinny Puppy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think it's Streak who takes over for Shep.
That's right. And then, yeah. Yeah. And I think, I think it's Streak who takes over for Shep.
That's right.
And I, now you need to once and for all tell me if this is true or not, or at least if you know if it's true, but when, when Shep would say often imitated, never duplicated,
was that a diss against Martin Streak?
I think that was before that, but I think, you know, there was a rivalry there and I
think that Chris and, you know, Chris was like that with lots of other people too.
Right.
But he would be like, you know, he's no Chris Shepard, you know.
Right.
You got to have a little swagger, right?
Oh, absolutely.
Nice try, buddy, you know.
And so I think that, and I think Martin too would agree to that.
He was, you know, he had a, there was a bar that he had to rise up to.
And he developed his own craft.
And over time, he became his own style.
But I think it was just, those are shoes.
Filling in after Chris Shepard was not easy.
I can imagine.
But he became his own thing.
Oh, yeah.
It's a different generation almost that embraced him.
Absolutely.
A hundred percent.
Absolutely.
I love them all.
Now,
one last thing
before I ask you
the big question.
What happened at the move?
I gotta know
because I was excited
you were there.
I talked about it
with Wise Blot
on the 1236 episodes
because we're both
big,
huge fans of Scott Turner
and it seemed like
a great match and then the retro thing,
and then it all went back to the flow.
Yeah, there's a couple of sort of different angles to this story,
but I'll try to keep it brief, and I won't get into cholesterol.
I want the real talk.
Can you edit?
But you can't go back and edit.
Just take out the cholesterol stuff.
That's important information.
Yes, it is, actually.
cholesterol i wouldn't dare that's important information yes it is actually so uh the move was i was really happy in in kitchener at two great radio stations very successful stations
dave and what up kitchen i got to see the that's why we're only doing the 70s and 80s because when
we do the 90s in 2000s and beyond when i come back for another set of jams which you are i'll
talk about kitchener and everybody because i know know some of the people will be listening.
Are you going to kick out a Creed jam for them?
They like Creed, right?
Absolutely.
Yes, Creed.
So anyway, so the move, I'm out at Kitchener,
and I actually got a call, I think.
I think somebody called me.
Yeah, I think they called me,
and they're doing this 90s throwback format.
And I'm like, that's cool.
I was aware of it and I was like, this would be really cool.
Yeah, Maestro.
Just a little shout out to Maestro because suddenly he was back on the radio.
I would hear this song every day on that.
You know, one of the cool things, and that's a story for the 90s,
the next set of jams.
for the 90s, the next set of jams.
But I have the fortunate experience of my career.
I've worked for two radio stations where actually artists have written about the radio station,
Spirit or Radio Rush, as an example, about 102.1.
And if you know the song, Stick to Your Vision,
there's a line in there.
This is back in 1991, 1992.
Energy 108 started in 1992.
But he writes in Stick to Your Vision
about him not being respected
and then said,
next year change the scenery,
gave birth to your energy,
is about Energy 108.
And it's just cool to have a song
written about a radio station.
And not just a song,
but both those songs,
the Rush Jam and the Maestro Jam,
they're both good.
Like, they've just been crappy album fillers
or whatever, but these are good songs.
So back to the move,
this throwback,
because we had these classic hit stations,
but nobody's done anything.
Most classic hit stations
are kind of based a bit of 60s,
you know, 70s, 80s,
and a little bit of the 90s
but not much and so nobody's done really moved what's the next era of classic hit stations you
know and we really don't have that so there's been a couple of radio stations in the u.s they
were kind of tinkering with it having some success with it but in in toronto you know they had flow
but it wasn't sort of living up to i think they you know wanted it to grow and and but it wasn't sort of living up to, I think they, you know, wanted it to grow
and, and, and it wasn't quite getting to the level they wanted it. So they came up with this, this,
uh, move and I'm like, I'd love to do that. I'd love to be part of this. I'm not sure where it
can go and how successful it could be, but I love doing new things in, in radio. So I was out there
and went along. So one of the first things I did when I arrived there
is I kind of felt bad because there wasn't any flow anymore. And I know a lot of people in the
building and a lot of people in Toronto really missed flow. And I was kind of all apologetic
going, well, I'm really sorry, but I really love this throwback idea and I really want to be a part
of it. So when I got there, basically, and you have to remember, this is a Toronto radio station, and there's a lot of money at stake in that.
And my approach in programming is like, here, just let me do my thing.
Yeah, I totally get that.
And then if the ratings aren't any good, go ahead, fire me.
But just let me do my thing.
So I kind of walked in there going, okay, I want to do this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this.
And they were like, okay, yes for that.
And no, no, no.
And yes.
And no, no, no, no, no.
Which is, I totally respect because it's like, you know, no, you're not changing everything.
You're just this guy.
Okay.
So, so that's kind of where it first started.
And it was only, it was puttering along and it really, nothing,
the needle wasn't moving, as we say in the business.
Right.
Is this story too long already?
No, I, no, please.
So I was still frustrated because I know it's not exactly what I wanted to do.
And then, so I, with some help from Laurie and I think, you know,
everybody there, you know, Steve Parsons andve uh steve parsons and steve jones
are great people great programmers and there again there's a lot of people that maybe you know maybe
too many cooks sometimes sure but but it's a big you know money-making property and a death by
committee is a thing like well yeah you have to and there's you know there's a research company
and so there's a lot of people involved in it and i get that so but i eventually talked him and made
another presentation you know my fancy presentations i talked to him and made another presentation,
you know, my fancy presentations I like to do.
And I finally talked him into letting me do more and say,
okay, so some of the no's became yes's.
And so eventually we got to a point where it was really more
of the Scott Turner throwback station I thought it should be
and could be successful.
So anyway, so that goes on the air and I get about 13 weeks.
I did not get it.
It was 13 weeks and they pulled the plug.
Wow.
Yeah.
So it was like, and I get it because there was a lot of nervousness about it and it just
wasn't tracking fast enough.
But PPM is a giant pain in the ass.
It's very, it's an imperfect system but it
everybody has to use it so that's what it is but there are some merits to it so anyway long story
short is uh 13 weeks and they pulled the plug going back to the back to flow and i thought that
was great and i thought you know what okay maybe this doesn't work, the throwback, the move. So back to flow, and it made a lot of people happy.
But I was like, you know what, that's not really why I came out here.
I didn't really come out here to do flow, and I think, yes,
Toronto needs a flow, and it's a great radio station.
But that wasn't it for me.
The other factor happening at the same time was the commute,
that is the Toronto commute.
See, I lived in and around Toronto all my life.
And I'm remembering, I'm going, oh, I know the commute's going to be bad.
But I was going into the city once a week on weekends, right?
And until you drive every day, remember, I live in Burlington.
Yes.
And this is young in St. Clair.
Oh, yeah, because then you got to get on top.
Okay. Holy shit. Because it's not like you've got to get on top. It's not like you
can stay in the south or whatever, like if it was at
Chorus Quay or whatever, that's one thing.
Because you've got to make your way up.
And I'm not so young anymore,
and so the drive was killing me.
Oh, that would do it, man. And you can't bike that distance
because it's too long to do it in a reasonable time.
It was killing my cycling time. I'd get home
and it'd be like 9.
Really, I'd have to leave it'd be like nine or, you know, if I, you know,
really I'd have to leave at five in the morning, you know, to try to beat traffic or left after
nine in the morning.
It was anyway, it was chaos.
Yeah, I know.
I don't even want to think about it.
I'm, you know, if I can't bike it, I don't even want to go there at this point in my
life.
I don't know, in my career.
So I'm with you, man.
Yeah.
So I, it was the, you know, the commute thing.
And then it was like, I wasn't really there to do flow
and let somebody else do that.
And some great people there.
And Mastermind, we'll talk in the other episode
when I do my other jams.
Mastermind is a guy that we worked together at Energy 108.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I want some more.
Yeah, for the next episode, we're going to do more
because I could do like an hour on the energy stuff right now.
Oh, since you were last year, we lost Don Burns, right?
He passed.
Yeah, actually, it's going to be five years, March 1st coming up.
So it'll be five years.
And I don't know if there'll be another sort of get together around that.
But yeah, it's hard to believe five years has passed by.
And, you know, just a huge influence on music in the city,
all the things he's done
from his days at CFNY,
but also,
you know,
Dr. Trance
and the rave scene,
just huge.
And just a great guy.
Just a great guy.
Definitely miss Don.
Okay,
we're going to have
lots more energy,
lots more in all this stuff,
your next appearance.
But let's get into these
70s and 80s jams.
Yeah.
So we'll do the first five
will be from the 70s
and then the next five
are from the 80s.
Are you ready to kick out the jams?
I am. Thank you. You two of us guys, you know I love you more You took me by surprise, I must say
When I found out yesterday
Ooh, I paid it to the great black
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh, I paid it to the great black
And I'm just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey, yeah
Hayden's Clearwater Revival.
Such a great song.
Yeah, I chose that for a number of reasons.
One, because Cosmo's Factory was the first album I bought as a kid growing up.
And you know what I just was looking at?
I still have the vinyl at home.
Looking at the cover, there's a guy on a bike.
And I'm a huge cycling fan like you are.
And so I thought that was appropriate.
So the reason behind that is I just love that sort of sound.
I think that kind of bluesy but almost southern rock, swamp rock, I think some people describe it.
Right, yeah.
I've always had a bit of an affinity for some of that music,
like Leonard Skinner, for example.
And I just posted on my Facebook.
It might have been on my Twitter,
if you want to follow me on Twitter, at Scott Turner.
Or Instagram, by the way.
It's backwards.
It's Turner, at Turner Scott, for Instagram.
If you're following me on Instagram,
it's just pictures of my bike, mostly. I don't know if you've seen it. Then I should be following on Instagram, it's just pictures of my bike mostly.
I don't know if you've seen it.
Then I should be following you.
It's just mostly pictures of my bike,
so that's kind of boring.
But on Facebook, I do,
and Twitter talk about some history
and things like that.
So Leonard Skinner's first concert in Toronto,
which I went to,
was 45 years ago this past week.
Wow.
I'm a big Skinner fan, and I went to the show by myself
because I couldn't find anybody that was interested in going.
You would dig The Flyer Vault.
This is a book that I had the guys, Rob Bowman and Daniel Tate,
came on this show, and we talked about it.
I'm going to listen to that.
I do want to pick up the book, and I do follow them now,
so their stuff is fantastic.
Yeah, they've got some really good stuff.
The other reason I picked this song is because just the performance,
the band performance is just great and a great cover version.
There's only so many cover versions out there that are better than the original,
in my opinion.
This is one of them.
I think this is the original.
No, no, no, I'm sorry.
Yeah, yeah, no.
I was thinking of Proud Mary because, I'm sorry, I had a trans. Marvin Gaye. Yeah. The original, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, no. I was thinking of Proud Mary because, sorry, I had a trans...
Marvin Gaye.
Yeah.
The original, I believe.
Right.
Because a lot of people think that's a Nike and Tina Turner song, Proud Mary.
And I'm like, no, no, that's a CCR song.
And then I had this conflation in my head all of a sudden.
But we're listening to Her Through the Grapevine.
But fantastic.
Only 11 minutes long, too.
It is a little long.
You know, a huge've always loved CCR, and I think one of the bands from that era that still stand up.
Their songs still sound great.
Here's a little fun fact I think you'll appreciate.
I like to read and listen to facts about the Billboard Hot 100,
sort of like a student of the Billboard Hot 100, the big chart in the States.
And this band, I believe,
has the most number two hits without a number one.
Wow.
CCR has, I believe, several number twos,
but never hit number one.
Yeah, they dominated for this period, I suppose.
A lot of hits.
It was also a time, you know,
when there were the double A-sided singles,
like Travelin' Band was on one side
and, you know, Who'll Stop the Rain
was on the other side.
You know, double A-sided singles
was a big thing back then.
So you got your money's worth.
For sure, for sure.
And they played Woodstock, right?
CCR?
Uh, oh.
I know.
Because I was just trying to, like, did they? I have a memory of them playing Woodstock, right? CCR? Uh, oh. I know. Just trying to, like, did they?
I have a memory of them playing Woodstock.
Not that I was, you know, at Woodstock.
I wasn't even on Earth.
But when the 50th anniversary hit,
I watched a lot of, like, Woodstock documentaries.
Yeah, me too.
The one recently, was it Netflix?
Yeah, I thought it was pretty good, too.
Yeah, really good.
And I went back and watched that original 1970 movie
that came out, the Woodstock documentary.
I haven't seen that in some time.
I used to like it on Twin City TV, late great movies.
Do you have another computer open?
You could Google that.
But I think they did play Woodstock.
All right, I'll play a little tunes.
You feel free to pipe up anything.
I'll just talk for a second because I talk about these.
Oh, sorry.
No, I'll bring it down.
Okay, the double A-sided singles.
We're going to talk in a minute about where I grew up in that.
But I used to go on the bus from West Hill to Cedarbrae Mall
into the Simpson Sears there to buy my singles.
Because I think they were a little bit cheaper than they were at the Sam's across the road.
That's where I remember buying a lot of my singles
when you talk about Chum AM.
I can confirm that
I didn't have any conflation issues
here, that CCR did in fact play
Woodstock. Born on the bio,
Green River,
99 and a half, let me see,
Commotion, Bad Moon Rising,
Proud Mary, I Put a Spell on You,
Keep on Shooglin,lin suzy q of course yeah
what a great band and i like hits and like you i have an affinity for that what we call like
southern rock type sound to the skinnered uh ccr kind of swamp rock kind of sound yeah absolutely
all right so next song all right you want the next song this song does not end
but it is you know it's just a great jam. Yeah, you got
Satin shoes
Yeah, you got
Nasty boots
Y'all got turkey eyes
Yeah, you got sleepy johnny
I can't hear me nothing on your window
I can't hear me nothing on your door Great guitar.
Can't you hear me knocking?
Yes.
Yeah, I was trying to think of, you of, it's one of the great riffs.
You talk about the first few bars of a song
that just establishes greatness.
This is one of those songs,
and it kicks off Blow.
If you've seen the film Blow,
or if you haven't, it's a great movie.
Is that the Depp one?
Yeah.
I think that's how the movie starts off.
And I think they even use,
I've heard the song used in a couple of different films,
I think in the Narco series on Netflix
or one of those kind of cartel series
that there are so many out there.
It's used there as well.
Did you ever do cocaine?
I'm sorry?
In the 90s or 80s, did you ever do cocaine?
Did I ever? No, no,
no, no, no, I did not. Like
the drug you mean? Yeah, the drug, yeah.
Oh, no. I did not. There might
have been possibly
at some time in the 90s, but we'll talk about
that in the other episode.
I only ask because I spend a lot of
time now with John Gallagher
and Peter Gross because I produce a podcast
for them. So now I'm of the impression
everybody was doing Blow back in the day.
I think yes and no,
and it was certainly around.
But I think for me,
there was a little bit of a story in the 90s.
Okay, we'll get to the next episode.
I can't wait for this.
I'm going to have to book it right away.
Okay, please continue.
But Corey, do you mind?
The very first Kick Out the Jams episode I can't wait for this. I'm going to have to book it right away. Okay. Please continue. But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but,
but, but Rolling Stones. No kidding. You're the second person to kick it out. Isn't that interesting? And for me, the connection on choosing that song is also because I was a huge Rolling Stones fan
growing up. And for me, it was all about the era of Mick Taylor, which was, and I wrote this down
because I had to check it. So Mick Taylor was part of the band, The Guitarist, 1969 to 1974.
That was the era of the Rolling Stones for me. And I think the one, the guitarist, 1969 to 1974. That was the era
of the Rolling Stones for me.
And I think the one
I wanted to mention,
it was just in a conversation
with somebody online
about it the other day.
Right.
The Brussels Affair,
there was a European tour.
The Stones played in Brussels.
They actually did,
I think, two shows on one day.
It was 1974, I believe.
October 17th, 19, sorry the stones did two shows in Brussels and they are in my opinion and some stones fans opinions
the the absolute pinnacle of the Rolling Stones in their live performance well
now the interesting story behind that this kind of connects a little bit to Chum FM
we were talking about earlier.
I had first heard this concert on Chum FM
when they ran this show called
The King Biscuit Flower Hour.
And it was, you know, again,
probably a foreground program
that you would run in the evenings or weekends
and that sort of thing.
And I got a lot.
I think that's where I first heard Leonard Skinner.
And I heard because Chum FM, they were limited.
They did play a lot of different things back in those progressive rock days.
But there was some stuff they didn't play.
And I would hear some of these bands like Black Oak Arkansas that they would never play.
I don't think they, for some reason, somebody at Chum FM did not like Southern rock.
So in Leonard Skinner didn't get any play.
And I remember hearing this performance
of the Rolling Stones on the King Biscuit Flower Hour,
and it was like, oh my God.
Because the Mick Taylor guitar style
against Keith Richards,
like they're just so,
they're different,
and they just complement each other in a beautiful way.
Mick Taylor's fluid playing is just,
I just love.
But anyway, if anybody ever wants to check that out,
it is on YouTube.
You have to pay a fortune because I think it was part of
this concert.
I think they call it the Brussels Affair.
It's in a box set, really expensive
box set, but you can actually
hear it on YouTube.
And it's just awesome. It's just great.
Hearing the Stones at their best. I think
one of the reasons they never officially put it out as a live album
is because there are some mistakes in it.
There are a couple of flaws.
But to me, that is just part of a great live show.
With you.
But they're minor.
They're really minor.
But just absolutely great.
And that's when they had Billy Preston on keyboards.
And the sax player.
And I don't know if Bobby Keys or one of the other guys,
just great,
great performance.
You know,
Brussels affair.
And it's a true jam in the,
you know,
here because seven plus minutes,
which sounds short after the CCR song,
but you know,
you kind of,
it just kind of,
I guess just really cool.
Right.
You could,
I could,
yeah.
Wow.
Yeah. And I, I read, it's interesting because I read Keith Richards book and you know the part
about he hardly talks about
Mick Taylor I don't think you know Mick Taylor
wasn't kind of a rolling
stone and one of the guys
but he was just
great on the guitar and really
elevated I think the stone sound
to another level they've
never ever gotten back to yeah i don't even want to truncate it so i'm going to let it finish up
and then we're going to roll into your third jam which is only 11 minutes so so the first three
songs are all nine ten eleven minutes yeah yeah so i Yeah, but It's okay, you can kill it.
It's alright.
Now that we're
They've heard it before
on Toronto Mic'd.
That's true.
That is true.
Right?
And you can
Use the Sticky Fingers
the Zipper album.
I don't know if you can
get that on vinyl
and it still has the
the zipper.
No idea.
But here, we'll roll right into your third jam here.
Great album, too.
Sticky Fingers.
Woo! We'll be right back. But now it looks like things are finally coming around. I know we've got a long, long way to go.
And where we'll end up, I don't know.
But we won't let nothing hold us back.
We're putting our show together.
We're polishing up our act now.
And if you've ever been held down before,
I know you refuse to be held down anymore. To listen, listen To every word I say
Every word I say
Ain't no stopping us now
I feel like we're going to break into a dance party here.
Love it.
Do you know that song?
Yeah, I do.
I know of it,
but if you had told me who sings this song,
I would have failed the test.
It's McFadden and Whitehead.
Ain't no stopping us.
I purposely asked for the long version,
which I'll tell you about in a second here,
but I was a big fan of it.
I play that because,
and this kind of goes back to,
we were talking about the variety that you heard on Chum AM,
Top 40 radio that had,
you know,
rock,
but it also had R&B and soul and funk and that.
And I've always, and it's, I think,
partly from listening to some of those songs
that you heard on AM radio,
but I had a huge side of me that was really into R&B
and soul music and funk music.
And this also was a time, this was 1979,
and if you were around Toronto in those years, there was disco everywhere. A lot of bars that had live bands had converted, a lot of restaurants had converted, either had to clear a space for a dance floor.
There were so many conversions going on from live bands into we're going to be a disco now because that's
where all the money was.
I made a note. I finally
remembered it on my drive here about one of
the clubs I was working at where I used to
play stuff like this.
It was called Coleman.
I don't know if anybody remembers that.
This is very obscure, but it was at
I think it was in
Bayview Village.
Bayview and Shepherd.
Okay.
Okay.
There used to be a restaurant in there.
Pretty sure that's the place.
And it was called Coleman's.
And I DJed there on Friday nights.
But, you know, disco is huge at the time.
But there were certain nights, like I think we did a Friday night or it was a Saturday night or something.
But it was more funky disco, you know, chic and
stuff like this.
So there was a kind of element of
we don't play the really
monotonous disco. We're more
into the funky, cool disco.
And that's a good example.
There was another club I worked at
on Yonge Street, just somewhere north of
the 401 called the Blue Room,
if anybody remembers that.
It's going way, way back.
And I was DJing.
Somebody remembers, Scott.
Somebody remembers.
Somebody remembers.
And I was DJing for a company called DJ Unlimited.
And this guy helped out a lot of restaurants convert their place.
And he would hire the DJs.
And I was underage working at, I think back in those days,
the drinking age was 18.
I forget the year that changed to 19.
But I was actually 17 years old working in the discos, underage, and it was a blast.
But anyway, that Philly sound really influenced me.
And I've always been a guy that loves production.
Never been in terms of music.
I was never a big lyric person,
but production and the melody
and how the arrangement is.
But that, to me, that Philly sound,
I forget the label, I think it was,
I wrote it down here,
Philadelphia International Records
had some big people like Teddy Pendergrass,
Patti LaBella, and the OJs.
But just that lush sound,
and, you know, Quiny Jones was another example.
And when you listen to a track
that we're listening to right now,
if you just have headphones on
and hear the quality of the production,
it's the strings that they layered over the music
and the funky bass line.
There's always a funky bass line.
It's as funky as all hell.
Yeah, absolutely.
And just really,
I think some of these tracks were,
you know,
there were some really top session musicians
that were part of it,
but a great, great sound,
the Philly sound.
Yeah.
They probably had a radio edit for the radio.
Yeah, there was.
But I chose that because that's, you that because playing those long 12-inch records
and discos was part of
the scene.
Now, I remember
Ain't No Half Steppin'.
I think was it Big Daddy Kane, I think?
Ain't No Half Steppin', if I'm remembering correctly.
Big Daddy Kane, I forgot that name.
Daddy Kane, anyway.
Never forget. Coleman's, I don that name. Daddy Kane. Anyway.
Never forget.
Coleman's.
I don't know.
Anybody remember Coleman's? Well, somebody who remembers Coleman's, leave a comment on the entry on TorontoMic.com or
tweet at us.
Yeah.
Very cool, my friend.
I DJed there.
That DJ's unlimited.
One of my first DJ gigs.
Because I think I've had a few guests who did work for DJ Unlimited.
Is that what it's called?
Yeah.
Yeah, I forget the guy who ran it,
but he had quite a number of DJs on his roster.
I mean, I worked through them doing a lot of weddings
and company parties and that, lugging around.
And he did those.
He cut some of his own records.
Okay.
And they had the sleeves, the DJ Unlimited sleeves.
Some old mobile DJs might remember that.
I bet you have more than a few, for sure.
I'm sure many are listening to us right now.
Now, this next jam is very short, three and a half minutes.
Yeah.
Something a little different.
But say goodbye to McFadden and Whitehead. Now I am an anti-coaster
I am an anarchoaster
Don't know what I want
But I know how to get it
I wanna destroy
Pass it by
Cause I
Wanna be This song makes me want to tear shit up.
Right?
Don't you feel like just fucking shit up right now?
A hundred percent.
The Sex Pistols.
Oh, I brought it down for you, but you're still digging it.
Let me bring it back down.
So here's my story around that.
Yeah.
Anarchy for the UK.
So that was released in November 1976.
So at the time, I'm listening to Chum FM. And this is a true story. So they did, I think at
11 o'clock at night, they had the news. And this is a funny thing about radio and FM radio back
then. They did news at 11 o'clock at night on radio. It was very weird. It was like 10 or 11
o'clock at night. And then they rolled into some foreground show but anyway i remember listening to uh and i mean i'm in my bed and i'm listening to chum fm and their
news are talking about this as sort of their kicker entertainment story at the end is and
there's this group out of the uk called the sex pistols and they have this song out that's just
gone on the charts and they play it and then I remember the news guy and his buddy in the studio beside him
are laughing, both by the name of the band and the song,
and they just kind of cut it up to bits.
Now, I'm sitting there, and the hair on the back of my neck is standing up.
I've got the proverbial goosebumps on my arm,
and I'm going, what is this?
And I remember calling my friend Ron Partridge.
Him and I were in a band, but we were playing like Stones and all that kind of stuff.
I remember calling him saying, I just heard this band on the radio called the Sex Pistols.
It's incredible.
And then about a year later, you know, Nevermind the Bollocks came out.
And the first Clash came out.
So my friend and I, who were all into, you know, we were into a lot of,
we were in a band called Landslide and we were playing Three Dog Night, Stones, some Beatles stuff.
Anyway, we discovered punk rock, and that changed my life.
You know, music is kind of a corny thing to say sometimes music can change your life.
Well, that was one of those cases it did.
And I basically, Ron and I got so into punk,
and we disowned all of our older music that we grew up with um
just letting the song play out here for a second
actually i was going to show you,
because we're going to talk about my high school in a second here,
but I brought my high school yearbook,
because they're doing a 50th reunion or something this year.
See that picture of me?
Oh, the farewell, yeah.
So that's, there's me, and I was a DJ at the school.
Sir Oliver Mowat, and I'm wearing a Rush t-shirt,
because I thought, I wanted to fit Rush in there because
I was also a huge Rush fan.
I saw them many times,
loved Rush. But the
moment the punk happened,
I kind of disowned
all the
music. I was into Boston
and whatever, and of course Skinnered and stuff
like that. But I was like, that's it. Punk is the future. I am going to be a punk rocker. So a funny story about
Moet. So if you go on to Facebook, I think for anybody that went to Moet or knows anybody that
went to Moet, which was way at the very end of Lawrence Avenue, West Hill, they are having a
reunion. I think it's in April or something. But so I go to my,
it was my high school graduation at Mowat,
and I'm into punk.
And you have to dress up for your graduation, right?
So this is, so I'm a rebel,
and I had these Chuck,
is it Chuck Taylor?
Yeah, yeah, of course. The punk converse all started. Yeah, the Converse, yeah, that, you know,
the Ramones and that everybody wore, all the punk. So I had a pair of those, but they were like torn
to shreds. And I had them hanging, they were put together by safety pins because, you know, I didn't
let the shoes ever wear out. It was very punk, right? So I had safety pins in my shoes. So anyway, I'm all dressed up and my mother is up in the crowd.
And backstage before, I think they brought us out for the graduation, you know, all the
kids are like, wow, you're so cool.
Because I was, you know, dressed up in this monkey suit, but I had my punk running shoes
on.
It was a statement, right?
Right.
I was a punk.
And I remember my mom, and she still, I think to this day,
my 85-year-old mother will still tell that story and say,
you know, I'm so proud of my son.
I think she had a friend with her.
You know, my son, he's going to come out on stage.
And then, of course, they come up on stage,
and then they're looking, and they look down,
and she said, you're wearing those shoes.
And she didn't talk to me for like weeks after that.
Oh, my.
Because I was wearing these beat up punk shoes,
but I was a little hero with all the kids.
This story you've told over Sex Pistols,
Anarchy in the UK,
is the reason I kick out the jams with people.
Stories like that.
I absolutely love that story
and that's what I love about hearing people talk about their favorite music is you get stories like that there's no how do
you pull a story like that you got to play some anarchy in the uk well it connects i made a note
here which you because you're a sports fan is that um west hill for those that don't know west hill
but uh okay and the guys the thrill from West Hill. Paul Tracy.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, yeah.
All right, continue.
I stole your thunder. So my, you know, 15 minutes of fame or whatever.
What famous people do you know from West Hill?
But the two people that come to mind
that I remember growing up
was to the street next to me, Dave Keon.
Wow.
Dave Keon of the Toronto Maple Leafs
lived in the next street.
And go ahead.
Shout out to FOTM Steve Pakin,
who came in here a few weeks ago
wearing a Dave Keon jersey.
Oh, wow.
That's cool.
So, yeah, and that was the, you know,
last time the Leafs won, was it?
Well, 67, yeah.
So he was in the next street
and we used to play road hockey and i think there's
a couple times i lived on satox so you didn't write you go into the next street always you
played on your own street but i think a couple times you went over it was like you know that's
where dave kian lives wow right there the other uh famous person west west hillonian or from west
hill uh dave duval wow did the weather, yeah, for CFTO.
And voiced over a lot of cool stuff that you probably heard.
Yeah.
You did the voiceover for on CTV.
Yeah.
He lived in West Hill.
That was like the claim to fame thing.
So my guess of the thrill from West Hill was incorrect.
But those two are fantastic.
Yeah, anyway.
Dave Duvall.
No, amazing.
Love that stuff.
A little trivia there.
Love that stuff.
And then this next jam is, again, you're back to the nine-minute jam. So we'll have to truncate this one. But. It is. You, amazing. Love that stuff. A little trivia there. Love that stuff. And then this next jam is, again, you're back to the nine-minute jam,
so we'll have to truncate this one.
It is, you're right.
I'm sure this will result in a nice Dave Marsden story,
so let's get going.
It varies, yes. I'm out. Thank you. I apologize again
Time after time after time
The conversation drifts
In our general direction
And your oral love is keeping me from bed
Talking and talking, it's all you ever said
You know it's all you want, all you want
It's all you want, all you want
Japan.
So the, and that's, I'm glad that that story is on your, in your archives of the Japan story from David Marsden.
And he is just a great storyteller.
Like he is, I get to sit and listen to David Marsden tell stories for days.
He's got so many too.
The reason I chose that because, so again, we played that mcfadden and whitehead it's
1979 uh i'm actually djing and discos and discovering punk music and and i remember
exactly and that's the power of music there's a certain moment when you hear a certain song
and it takes you right back to exactly where you were at the time. So for me, remember, I was a Chum FM listener,
and maybe because I grew up in West Hill
and you couldn't get the signal that was coming from Caledon, CFNY,
and I have a gig,
and I'm heading to my DJ gig, disco gig, at La Rotunda.
Now, I had to look that up because I couldn't remember if it was on Dufferin or Western
Road, but I think I found the location.
Dufferin, north of Eglinton.
La Rotonda.
I don't even know if that building's still there.
It's a round brick building.
It was like a banquet hall.
A lot of Italians went there.
Yeah, if you're at Dufferin. Yeah, for sure. Anyway, La Rotonda. that a lot of, it was like a banquet hall. A lot of Italians went there. Italian events.
Yeah, if you're at Duff, yeah, for sure.
Anyway, La Rotonda.
Anybody remember that?
Dating myself here.
But I'm in the parking lot,
and I have to go upstairs
and DJ all this disco music in a few minutes.
And I'm just sitting there playing with the radio,
and I come across this 102.1,
and this song is playing,
and I'm like, what the fuck and this song is playing and I'm like,
what the fuck is this?
This is so cool.
And that was my discovery not only of Japan
but of CFNY.
And then it just went from there.
I was like,
from that moment on,
I was like,
I want to work there.
Remind us,
since we have a little time
in this Japan song,
remind us how you end up at 102.
So you discover the station then, and then
how do you end up working there? Oh yes, we're actually going to get to that
in our very next song.
Funny you should mention that. You want to roll right into that?
Let's do it. That's the connection
to CFNY. Go ahead.
Anyway,
great song. Our secret, oh no All over town, everybody's talking
It ain't no secret anymore
You are the one they're saying
That has all the information
My confidence you've been betraying
I don't know what, I don't know what To do, got the word, is out Can you tell we switched decades here?
We're in the 80s, kids.
There we go.
So Jermaine Stewart, the word is that and the reason,
and there's a CFNY connection here.
So this story, this song and this story is about a little-known AM radio station.
Here, I'm going to pass to Toronto Mike one of the charts.
So there was this AM radio
station. Before
it was that station, it was
CKMW. There was an AM station
in Brampton.
In the same building
as CFNY called
CKMW. And yes, it was part of
Chic. I was about to ask
Chic.
Yes. So back for people that know the CKMW. And yes, it was part of Chic. I was about to ask. Chic Radio.
Right?
Yes.
Wow. So back for people that know the CFNY story, it was CHICFM.
There was an AM station.
Anyway, the AM station later was CKMW.
And I think it was 1460 maybe.
See, this is a different frequency, but it was the same radio station.
Right. CKMW. CKMW is looking for an
announcer. And it was like a
kind of hot AC, kind of adult contemporary. So not quite
a top 40 station. Anyway, they were looking for a jock.
And I'm like, oh, there's this station
called, never heard of it before, CKMW. And it's at, wait a minute, it's at 83 Kennedy Road South.
Wait a minute, I know that address. Right. So it was my way inside the building. It was literally
down the hallway. Like there wasn't a separation. They were just down the hallway. And I think it
was, it might have been at the time
for a short period of time owned by selkirk or whoever owned cfny at the time so anyway i get
into this radio station and that was my my door my way in the cfny so from that the moment i
started working at ckmw i was sending tapes hey hire me hire me which took a few years and you're
not the only one on this uh that ended up on CFNY.
So, yeah, quick other story to this,
and this is where this song comes in, the word is out, Jermaine Stewart,
is CKMW gets sold, and Bill Evanoff and a partner decide to buy the radio station.
They say, okay, we want this radio station,
which they changed the frequency to 790, but it was it was still ckmw but changed it to 790 and they they said we're going to do a
multicultural station okay so the so i'm i'm working at this radio station and they they
continue to employ me uh and i did another one of my fancy presentations to Bill Evanoff and I said, hey, why don't, because it was multicultural,
but they only had an Italian show in place.
Like they hadn't got all their shows together, right?
Right, I see that, yeah.
So I said, you got tons of, you know, available airtime during the day.
I got this idea for this, you know, rhythmic radio station.
I've been, you know, again following um you know like to talk
about that soul and r&b that i really loved and i thought you know toronto and this is you know
this is you're talking 1984 and there was you know a lot of talk about the toronto needs you know an
urban radio station or a black radio station at the time a lot of people were listening to wblk
out of buffalo and toronto didn't have its own station
that way. And I was like, you know what?
I know people are really into this shit
and I love this stuff.
So I talked him into doing Rhythm Radio
and I'll post this too because we've still got these
charts. But yeah, tell them who else
worked there for a while. Okay, so there's another
name. So they get a block of English programming
and then there's Italian and then back to English
and the first block there is Scott Turner.
S-K-O-T Turner, by the way.
So there you go.
And so, okay.
And then later, I guess overnights, I guess it looks like,
May Potts.
Yes.
Wow.
Isn't that cool?
It's very cool.
I'm trying to think of...
Do you know who else worked there?
Freddie P.
I'm guessing.
No, no. He was down at CFNY.
But I wondered if he was...
Craig Venn.
Oh, yes.
Okay.
Craig Venn worked there.
Lobster boy.
We had some...
Yes, we had some great times there.
A lot of laughs, a lot of memories,
Craig and I working there.
Yes, he's now at The Rock.
The Rock in Oshawa.
In Oshawa.
Yeah, is that 94.9?
Yeah, so Craig Venn worked at Rhythm Radio, Radio 790.
So one quick interesting trivia story here.
So check this out.
This is an article from a breakdance competition.
So this is like 1984.
Oh, wow.
And breakdancing's huge, right?
Yeah, I was doing it too, so yes.
So again, we're like a,
nobody really knows this AM radio station,
but we're starting to pick up some buzz of people
and this is AM radio
because nobody's playing this music
other than you got to go to BLK, right?
Right.
So we're playing this stuff
and we decide, hey, let's have a break dance contest.
And we're in Brampton,
of course it's the same building as CFNY
and we decided to do this thing at Chincoozie Park.
And we thought maybe a couple hundred people would show up.
Right.
And what does it say in the article?
Is it 6,000?
Yeah, 6,000.
Jam Park for Contest.
6,000 people showed up.
And a couple of interesting stories behind that.
I'm working with Mastermind again.
We worked together at Energy 108.
So Mastermind, who does afternoon drive at Flow in Toronto,
and we worked at the move together.
Right.
I was asking him, I said, you know,
a couple of the guys that were in one of the breakdance crews
has reached out to me.
I said, did you go to the,
because I know Mastermind was from Brampton.
I said, did you ever go to back, you know, back around the early
eighties, there was this big break dance. He goes, yeah, man, I think I, yeah, I think I went there.
And I'm pretty sure he did and said, yeah, everybody was talking about it and people
still do talk about it. And then I said, I don't know whether he decided to call,
but he was good friends with Russell Peters. Of course.
So he texts Russell Peters and I said, and he said, that's but he was good friends with Russell Peters. Of course. So he texts Russell Peters,
and I said,
and that's what he said.
He said,
I think Russell Peters might have gone there.
Anyway, he texts Russell Peters to say,
hey, did you go to that break dance thing
at Jacuzzi Park?
And he goes,
go there?
I was in one of the break dance crews.
Great story, huh?
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
By the way,
DJ Starting From Scratch,
who's been a guest on the show,
tours with Russell Peters as hisers uh as his dj there quick quick quick aside i'm looking at the uh
article you cut out and on the back is an ad for radio shack and there's several very cool items i
would have been interested in back in the mid 80s and every single one of these items is now on your
smartphone like okay so there's a there's a recorder. Yes. There's a watch.
There's a calculator.
There's a flashlight.
All separate devices.
Yeah.
Literally everything on this page,
I'll just show you.
Isn't that funny?
Everything on this page is now in your pocket as part of your smartphone.
And that's unbelievable.
1985.
Isn't that amazing?
I also want to mention
the two of the breakdance crews
had reached out to me just
recently, actually. Five Wizards
of Funk and the Break City
crew, and they've recently,
I think if you go on YouTube,
Five Wizards of Funk or Break City crew,
there's some footage they have, I think,
from the event, and also
I think Mississauga News and the Brampton Guardian
have done recent articles about this event.
It was quite something.
And it was really a real hint into the future for me because wanting to do this kind of format and do this music,
which would later come to be with Energy 108, which is the next episode.
Our next jam session.
Yeah.
You know, Scott, you were born to kick out the jams.
You should have a podcast where you just do this.
I'm telling you.
Okay.
I'm in.
Let's kick out.
So where are we at now?
This is number seven here.
Yeah.
We're almost done.
We're almost done.
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We're almost done.
We're almost done.
We're almost done. This town has dragged you down Oh, the rain falls hard on a humdrum town
This town has dragged you down
And everybody's got to live their life
And God knows I've got to live mine
God knows I've got to live mine God knows I've got to live mine
William, William it was really nothing
William, William, it was really nothing
It was your time
The Smiths.
William, it was really nothing.
The Smiths.
William, it was really nothing.
So, I'm at CF in Wainau,
and we talked about hearing Sex Pistols,
Anarchy in the UK for the first time,
and discovering punk music, and it's changing my life,
and The Smiths were that band for me.
I thought it would never happen again. Like, you know, could one band, one song, one sound, you know, really change?
The Smiths were that for me.
It was just, and I thank Ivor Hamilton for bringing their material,
their songs into CFNY to be played.
And I think we just passed the anniversary
of when How Soon Is Now.
That's really the reason why I play that song,
because William, it was really nothing.
One of the great things about CFNY back then
is Ivor would bring in these imports,
and some of these, and this was a single.
The single was William, it was really nothing.
But on the flip side, and most people would ignore the flip side,
but Ivor was like, I'm going to see what's on side B here.
And there were two other songs on side B.
I forget what the first one was,
but the other second song on side B was called How Soon Is Now.
Wow.
And Ivor was really good because he paid attention.
He spent the time to listen to every single song.
And I remember him like, oh, wow, this is, you know,
and he was like to everybody.
Of course, that was William.
It was really nothing.
It was the single, but I was like,
check out this song on the other side,
and it was Ivor that really caught that first,
and it was like a year later until How Soon Is Now
was released officially as a single,
but just a great band for so many different reasons, I think.
And I mentioned earlier, I'm not really so much into lyrics,
but somehow Morrissey's lyrics really caught me,
and they were so different, and Johnny Marr's guitar playing.
And they were a great live band, too.
Saw them twice, they played, I think it was, at Kingswood.
And they were just a band that were just very
different from everybody else and one of the things i like pointing out to people that kind
of laugh at the some people laugh at the 80s and some of the music from the 80s because they always
kind of go to that sort of goofy um i don't know you know i'm not trying to think wang chung or
something yeah but i like to point out to people that there's, you know, no, there was killing joke.
There were the Smiths.
There was that,
that,
that,
that,
that,
that,
you know,
they need to be reminded.
Now so much here,
but now we know where the veganism comes from.
You were heavily.
Well,
I was around the same time.
I,
it was really,
it was really my wife at the time.
My first wife.
Yeah.
I have one of those too.
So funny talking about that
it's like i know now number three three times a charm but oh number three i'm at three now oh i'm
trying not to get i'm trying not to have a number three but it's funny how we give them all the same
name because they're all wife uh like so it's like you have to kind of differentiate because
i'd same here i'll be like oh my first wife but then it's does that suggest this is your second
wife instead of your last wife like you're on number three, which I'm sure your goal is that
that's your last wife. But you say my third wife and you're like, okay, well, I can't wait to meet
number four. You know what I mean? So I credit my first wife, Lisa, for she was the one that
really got me into vegetarianism. So it was kind of happening. And then the fact that, oh,
Morrissey's a vegetarian really got me going too.'s just a trivia note yeah so my first wife lisa
uh is married to tad winkler's from chalk circle oh the first concert i ever saw was chalk circle
at the ontario place forum yeah yeah and every april 1st i play uh april april fool yeah yeah
anyway uh we're great friends.
I love these fun facts.
Keep in touch.
And Tad's great, and Lisa's great.
And I had Tad's keyboard.
I had the keyboard from Chalk Circle for many years.
And then I gave it to a good friend of mine, James Doman,
who is a great producer, DJ guy.
And anyway, that's the trivia.
Oh, no, I love that trivia.
Love Chalk Circle.
Now, the Smiths are making a bit of a comeback. I love Chalk Circle,, that's the trivia. Oh, no, I love that trivia. Yeah. Love Chalk Circle. Yeah.
Now, the Smiths are making a bit of a comeback.
I love Chalk Circle, too, by the way.
They actually asked me to manage them at one point, but I was too busy.
Oh, wow.
Because I was a huge fan of Chalk Circle.
And they would win the UNOs, right?
So prior, before the Casby Awards, they were the UNOs, right?
Yeah.
And Chalk Circle would do well.
Great band.
Speaking of Marsden there.
Yep.
Okay.
Yep.
It's funny, because we talked about your,
well, we saw the first album you bought.
What's the first concert you attended?
You know what?
I don't know for sure.
I think it was BTO at the C&E Grandstand or something.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
That'd be fun though.
Yes.
And then funny enough,
we talked about at Convocation Hall,
Leonard Skinner was one
of my early ones, but
I think it was BTO
at the C&E Grandstand and they were great.
You saw Skinner at Convocation
Hall? Yeah, it was their first show.
I can't even, okay, I guess I blew by
me that that venue to me,
to me that's where you go see
Tori Amos or something. I don't know, I'm trying to
Skinner in there seems weird.
Well, it's like The Clash.
I graduated from that building.
The Clash that played at the O'Keeffe Center
because I think they were supposed to play someplace else,
but they put a punk band in the O'Keeffe Center.
Yeah, at the O'Keeffe Center,
which is now the...
It's got its fourth name that I can think of.
That was a mistake.
It's now the Meridian Hall or something like that.
But yeah, Convocation Hall.
I saw a few bands there,
but yeah, I think it was a bit of an odd venue for Skinner.
That was their first time they played Toronto.
Oh, yeah.
So there's a tiny comeback, I think, of Swords with the Smiths
because the very popular movie with my five-year-old
is Bumblebee, which is the Transformer.
And the, what's her name?
Hayley Steinfeld, I think is her name.
The actress who plays the key human being
in Bumblebee, the movie,
is she is always with a Sony Walkman.
It takes place in like 87, I think.
And she always has a Walkman playing the Smiths
throughout the whole movie.
So there's a whole bunch of Smiths songs
in this Bumblebee.
So if you can dig that up.
And William is on Hat Full of Hollow,
which is, you know,
I just have to say,
if it was Desert Island Disc,
it would be, you know,
probably up in the top five
of my favorite albums of all time.
But there's,
I can see Morrissey's signature there.
I interviewed him backstage at Kingswood
and I was just thrilled to death
because, and I was, you know,
one of the weird things,
I did a lot of interviews when I was at CFNY and because not every, you know, one of the weird things, I did a lot of interviews when I was at CFNY
and because not every,
you know, I ever did a lot too,
but there was a lot
because not everybody was really wanted to do them
and I was willing to drive anywhere
and go anywhere and do all these interviews.
And I remember that, you know,
talking to Morrissey backstage
and I said, you know,
who else is lined up?
And they go, well, it's a guy from
the Globe and Mail
and it's you
and you,
that's it.
Like it was just like,
yeah,
there was the interest.
I'm like,
what?
You know,
this is Morrissey,
man.
And he was really cool.
He was a really cool guy.
Now that has
Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
on that album,
which I still go to that one.
I love it.
But just a quick aside,
this is a complete quick aside
because we don't have time
to dive into it,
but the Toronto Star has pretty much gutted their entertainment section i don't know
where it is because i just saw that in here how ben rainer and now he's reassigned okay i had a
chat with ben technically reassigned that's all i'm gonna say about it at the moment so yeah he
didn't take a buyout but uh peter howell did and's just, you know, for guys like us, this was a big deal,
the entertainment section.
Yeah, it is.
And I, you know, a very good friend of mine
just, you know, took a package as well.
And it's, you know, the media,
especially, you know, newspapers have been hit.
Yeah.
Wow.
It's the, now I understand,
like now that it's the move to digital,
what matters is clicks,
like online traction.
Like,
so if what you write about doesn't perform well digitally,
they simply,
you're simply cut.
Like it's just,
that's what's measuring everything now.
So it's,
anyway,
that's a huge,
yeah,
we're in a huge flux and a huge transition right now.
And we could,
we could do five shows on it.
But yeah, it's...
All right, I'll schedule them today
because we're doing that.
Okay, I love this jam we're going to play.
In fact, I played it on an episode of TMI.
I have a podcast.
It's not as popular as this one,
but basically every month or so,
I share updates on what's going on with TMDS,
my digital services business.
And it's like the seven, eight minute episodes. And I used this song to introduce it yesterday because I like it so much. Here we go. I pictured a rainbow
You held it in your hands
I had flashes
But you saw the plan
I wandered out in the world for years
While you just stayed in your room
I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon The water boys. Yes. The whole of the moon
The Waterboys.
Yes.
The whole of the moon
Great song.
I chose that for a number of reasons.
One, because purely it's just a great song.
And I remember playing that on Spirit of Radio Sunday.
And it's sounding so good.
And I thought, you know, this is the reason for, one of the reasons,
one of many reasons why a show like that should be on the air.
And, you know, I think I was doing some research to see which radio stations in Canada
are playing this great song from the 80s.
And, like, nobody's playing it.
Nobody's playing it.
And I don't, you know, it's not about CFNY.
It's just about a great song and that it stands up and it should be played.
And then what was really cool, I went to see the Joshua Tree tour show in Toronto.
I actually went to see Joshua Tree in Dublin, Ireland, which is just a bucket list sort of thing.
Wow.
Yeah, it was fantastic.
Really enjoyed that.
But anyway, so if you were at the Joshua Tree show or any of the shows, they opened with this song.
You know, bands play some music before a show,
but there's this one song they'll sort of feature before they come out.
They were playing this, and it just sounded great.
That's their hype song.
Yeah, absolutely.
Hype song.
That's a good one.
Actually, it doesn't have a name.
You know, the big song you play before you go out.
Well, you know, because sporting events and stuff,
it's popular to have your hype song to get you jazzed for the game or whatever,
and that's kind of the same deal, I guess.
So it's a quick little story,
quick little segue into,
wanted to sneak this little story in
because I didn't pick a U2 song in here
and I just thought,
okay, I'll kind of tie in the Waterboys with U2.
Huge U2 fan over the years
and seen so many shows,
great live band.
But one quick story,
and it's sort of a connection.
I know your show is very Toronto-centric,
but Daniel Lanois is a Hamilton boy,
but he co-produced this album,
and he, of course, did some other great albums.
But one of my favorite interviews,
I talked about all the interviews I did at CFNY,
one of my favorite interviews with Daniel Lanois telling me,
and by the way, on the song,
still haven't found what I'm looking for.
There's that little pizzicato kind of style guitar at the very beginning.
That's actual Daniel Lanois plays that part.
Wow.
And he was kind of like, that's my guitar.
I left that in, you know, because they did so many different takes.
So he kind of left that in.
And that's his guitar at the beginning of that.
But anyway, Daniel Lanois.
And I do the interview at his studios in Hamilton.
I think it's Grant Avenue Studios.
I don't know if it's still there or not.
And Daniel Lanois, I think he had a place in New Orleans,
and whether he lives there or whatever.
But he's telling me about the time he's producing Peter Gabriel's album,
So, huge album, right?
Monster album.
And he's telling me how frustrated he was because he said,
Peter Gabriel took forever to complete tracks and he would just meander or be on the phone and
so at one point and it's a true story he said i had to lock peter gabriel in the studio until
he finished the fucking track true True story. I love that.
So, and then another story,
which connects to Peter Gabriel,
is I decided to go to,
on a trip to the UK
and did a little tour here, there, and everywhere.
Decided to go because Peter Gabriel
has his real world studios in Bath, England.
So, I'm going to check that out.
Sure.
And ran into completely
just out of the blue jane sibry who is and i think she was doing some sessions at at the
studios what a coincidence yeah and i remember hanging out with jane sibry in the there was
like a field in the back of the studio and it's beautiful country around there, Bath, England, if you ever go there. And we're just lying in the grass.
Jane Sibri is a very kind of
worldly,
spiritual kind of
individual and she's just awesome.
And I remember lying on our backs
looking up at the stars for hours
outside Peter Gabriel's studio
just talking shit.
That's cool, man.
One more Bath story.
Yeah, of course.
So I'm there at the same time.
I see Jane Sibury, Peter Gabriel Studios decide,
got to go to the pub.
And I don't remember Bath being that big of a place.
And it probably had a few pubs.
But find a pub and it's packed.
Typically, pubs in the UK always packed.
And certainly Friday night or whatever it was. So I'm in the pub and it's packed, you know, typically. Pubs in the UK always packed, and certainly Friday night or whatever it was.
So I'm in the pub, and it's packed,
and I'm like, I got to go for a beer.
And then standing at the bar with his back,
you know, your elbows are leaning back in the bar,
and you're looking out towards the crowd,
and just, you know, pint in hand.
Yeah.
Roland Orsabal of Tears for Fears.
Yes.
Wow.
And I walk up to Roland,land and he goes hello you and sure enough like a few months before i had interviewed and he remembered me and we just
wow you know we're talking to shit and he was a super cool guy and it was like okay this is too
cool anyway that's my little i was just waiting for just waiting for Kate Bush to show up or something. No, I wish.
I wish.
I did interview her, and I have that somewhere.
I've got a box of cassettes I need to digitally transfer.
Well, for your new podcast, you can have them all ready to go here.
All right.
This is the penultimate jam, number nine. 9. Thank you. everyone listening saying oh they stole that from coldplay yes i'm glad you mentioned that i did
want to mention that the uh and one of the reasons i play i and I just love Kraftwerk and Computer Love, but they're such an influential and important band.
And I put them in here because of those CFNY years.
And what was great about CFNY is it had a blend of different styles at any given time.
So there was an electronic side of CFNY.
at any given time.
So there was an electronic side of CFNY,
and that's kind of where it changed for me when it was early 90s.
And there was a music director at the time,
I forget his name,
but he was like, oh, Nirvana's the future man,
and Soundgarden, and it was Pearl Jam.
And it was like, yeah, great, great bands.
And around this time, this is late 80s, early 90s,
I'm discovering all this electronic music,
and I'm like, no, man, like, you know, New Order, Depeche Mode,
and all that sort of stuff, you know, this is the future.
There's this, you know, techno's happening,
and there's these raves happening,
and all this cool shit's happening, man.
And he's like, no, no, no, no, no.
And that's kind of one of the times when, you know,
CFNY went in more of a rock, modern rock.
All in on grunge.
Rock.
Yeah, the grunge thing.
Yeah, it was like, and grunge was awesome.
But there was other stuff too.
And that's kind of where it changed for me.
And I've always, you know, I use that, I hate that term, rhythmic.
I think that's a radio term.
But, you know, that sort of music from, you know, hip-hop and R&B
and, you know, dance music, electronic music.
So Kraftwerk, I think it's an ode to them as being so important in that scene.
And I think one of the things that was interesting around that time,
I think it was 1990, May Potts and I did this show called Beats Per Minute.
Some people may remember the show.
I think I got the years written down here.
I had to look that one up.
I remember the show.
Look, there's the demo cassette.
And it's funny.
So it was actually syndicated, and I think I got it on two other stations, one in BC.
And so May Potts and I did this show called Beats Per Minute.
And it was basically a half hour top five,
you know,
basically dance tracks a week.
We did it from June,
1990 to August,
1991.
Wow.
This is,
I'm so glad you kept on,
held on to all this stuff.
So it's a cassette you're looking at.
And that,
that inner sleeve,
it's just,
you know how much that cost me?
There was like,
I had to look everywhere to get a recycled paper this is like 1990 1991
and it's like no one's ever heard of it and i said i want to be um you know earth friendly
and right it ended up costing me a fortune for the paper for that but i had to do it
anyway may may pots and i and that you know, we were connected from Radio, Rhythm Radio 790
And it was me getting ready for Energy 108, I was
Doing a lot of research and I was getting ready to
Do that very thing, there was actually, funny enough, around the
Another thing I had to write down is around 1990, 1991
I went on this sort of fact-finding mission,
and I asked for a sabbatical.
I was at CFNY.
I said, I want to take a month off and do some stuff.
And they said, okay.
I said, look, you don't pay me.
I just need to take a month off.
And they said, okay.
And then they said, we're going to pay you anyway.
Can you just do some reports for live in Toronto?
I'm like, are you kidding me?
I'm like, who would do that?
And who would do that today in radio?
But I did.
And so part of the journey when I was down there,
because again, I was like thinking of,
at the time Toronto,
I think May Potts and I did some research work
for Robert J. Wood or J. Robert Wood, who was part of the people trying to put a quote unquote black radio station on in Toronto.
Anyway, so I go down to the U.S. and I decided to visit some urban contemporary radio stations.
And I wrote it down somewhere and I forgot my list of stations I went to.
Hold on.
Oh, so I go down and I go to the four of the biggest urban stations i could find
in the u.s one was v103 atlanta uh w wsl in philly wyyu in baltimore and wkys in washington i actually
you know called ahead and thought went to those stations because i said hey you know what toronto
doesn't have an urban container radio station i want I want to be involved in a radio station.
And I learned a few things from talking to those guys,
which partly went into the creation of Energy 108,
which would happen later and going to be on our next episode.
Yes, which we're going to, like literally later,
I'm going to whip out my calendar and book this.
Okay.
Get it down.
Yeah, because there's a lot of great
Energy 108 stories I want to get into
and some other things for the 90s and
onwards. But
Kraftwerk, just, you know, which
electronic EDM
trance
techno dance music
artist does
not, you know, name check craft work as an influence
when in your next episode we have to talk about the charts and i weekly that uh the energy 108
uh charts and i weekly like there's a whole i have a whole bunch of stuff okay yeah absolutely
and uh yeah craft work there's that sims i can't remember the Simpsons line when the Germans have
all the artwork
that was stolen from them in
World War II or something and they drive off listening
to Kraftwerk.
Is it the calculator?
What is the calculator?
Yeah, yeah.
A lot of hip-hop artists too
talk that Kraftwerk
was an influence.
They just were ahead of everybody.
Now we have one jam to go
so is it safe to say this is the
jam where we get to talk about Spirit of Radio
Sundays on 102.1? Yes, correct.
Okay. Finally. See how I did
that? By process of elimination. That'll be
the wrap up to the show. Alright.
Let's kick out. And this is
you can almost talk right at the top
because there's a very long,
I'm trying to,
I'm trying to be a DJ here
and time my transitions out here.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, this is a nine minute
epic, yeah. I'm pretty sure we got a few minutes of this.
It's great, but I want to hear some Scott Turner.
And we have a number of really long tracks,
and I think that's another thing I wanted to mention about CFNY in those days.
Especially the 80s, there were a lot of extended mixes. Some
truthfully were better
than others, but it was a thing.
But, this
was one of those that the longer
version, with that flute
or whatever it is that's being played.
I don't know my instruments. I don't know. Is that a flute?
Is that a fear? What are we listening to here?
No, it's not a flute. What is it?
What is that instrument? I don't know. See What are we listening to here? I have no idea. No, it's not a flute. What is it? Yeah.
What is that instrument?
I don't know.
It's a flute, maybe.
See, now we have to Google that.
What's that instrument in this song?
I'll Google it.
You talk and I'll Google it.
It's got to be something else.
Okay, you Google that.
Okay.
So I'll tell the story.
So I did want to point out that there were certain long versions that were just
so much better than the short versions. This is one of them. And I think The Perfect Day is another
that you just had to hear the longer version. And that's what drives me nuts about Spotify
and Apple Music. And I think the couple of times I've tried to find,
you know, the extended mix
or some of the mixes that we would play on CFNY,
and it's just not there.
But YouTube, you know, this is a plug for YouTube.
I got to tell you, yes, there are commercials.
Remember the day when there were no commercials on YouTube?
You know, there is a Chrome extension that will get rid of them for you.
Oh, okay.
Ad block, yeah.
Okay.
We'll talk after, yeah.
But I am just amazed at how, like, I've yet to be stumped on YouTube.
And I've been stumped so many times on Spotify and Apple Music
when I'm trying to find a song that now they don't have it.
And then I go on YouTube like, oh my god, somebody
uploaded this. Oh my god, that's the version.
That's the one. Isn't it the best? It really
helps when you're doing what I'm doing right now.
Is it a flugelhorn? No?
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I'm failing you here. My Google foo here.
Someone will tell us. Somebody will correct us.
The trick is... I don't know
if it's a flute, but that's what comes to my mind.
Okay, I'll keep looking here.
Yeah, okay.
So, and then we'll talk about
SRS, Spirit of Radio Sunday.
Well, I have a lot of questions about that.
As a faithful listener,
every Sunday I knew that 102.1 was gonna play uh the great
old stuff like i don't know nitby depeche mode whatever like you like it was a great concept
and part of this is uh and maybe i've been heavily influenced by fred patterson who tells me uh
radio is for you know generation x and older this is his firm belief in that you've lost, whatever we call them, millennials and younger.
What are my kids?
Generation Z or whatever.
Yeah.
Oh, here we got some vocals.
Bring this up just for a sec.
Great voice.
It was a kind of so, so love and I'm gonna make sure it never happens again. By the way, Mike, your basement's freezing.
I have a heater there, but I didn't turn it on because I thought you were...
Well, I just realized that, yeah, we are on...
I keep wiping my nose.
People think, oh, there's Turner.
He's doing coke.
It is cold, but it's a cold day in this city.
And yeah, Turner's decided to start his coke habit now in 2020.
It is chilly down here.
So let's tell people it's soft sell.
Yes.
Say hello, wave goodbye.
The long version with the instrument.
I don't know.
I'm actually tired of Googling it, but somebody will correct us right away.
Probably right now.
In fact, if someone wants to tweet at me what the instrument is,
I'll go to Twitter now and read it.
But tell me about, give us the story in your words
of why did they cancel Spirit Radio Sundays on 102.1?
And by the way, I think this was one of the last songs
I played because I'm, I like
being overly dramatic, so
I think we played this in the last hour
of the show. So,
you know,
I put the idea together and I presented it
to, and I was working for Chorus, of course,
out in Kitchener.
And I think I pitched it
a year before it went on the air
and no response.
And then out of the blue,
I think it was Dave Farrow
that said,
Hey, Scott,
we've been talking about some things
and that idea you had.
And I completely had forgotten about it.
And they said,
We're thinking, yeah.
And I'm like,
Holy shit.
Great.
So Dave Farrow, thank you.
And I think Chris Sison was also very supportive
because I was busy in Kitchener with two radio stations.
Oh, someone on Twitter says it might be a clarinet.
Clarinet, that's got to be it.
Yes, I couldn't think of it.
I think it is a clarinet.
This is a music show.
Thank you so much.
A clarinet.
See, I think flute's not right.
A clarinet. And here I think flute's not right.
A clarinet.
And here I am.
I'm so focused on a hundred other things.
I don't have time to think about instruments.
What other great songs have clarinets in them?
What's the last song you think of?
So I thanked those people.
And so how did it, why did it end?
What happened?
Yeah, because it was, let's set the table by saying it was very popular.
Yes, it was.
So it was designed to be, hey, look, just take a, it's a feature show.
Again, I mean, I'm the feature show guy, right?
I love to put feature shows together.
And I did that back in the day, you know, Thursday 30, live in Toronto, all that stuff.
Right.
But, you know, the station, this is how it could work, just as a feature show. So there's a little respect to those days. So there's some great music. And I said,
it's really, it can't be like an hour show. It's got to be a six hour chunk. So I really pushed
for that. I think they wanted it to be five hours and I really pushed for six hours, something like
that. And I thought, great idea. And we did. I said, you know, and I said, we can, you know, some of this music, we can try to tell
some stories around to connect to music today and try to do that sort of thing. So there was
some concern about, okay, it's been a stretch, you know, to connect this music with today's music.
But ultimately, that was what brought the show down. So the ratings, 2554 ratings, and ratings and demographics is a big thing in radio.
That's everything.
How you make your money.
Yeah, yeah.
So the 2554 numbers were fantastic.
The problem was it wasn't doing very well with 1834s, which is the target of the station today.
1834s, which is the target of the station today, or best way of explaining it is the target they really needed to super serve. So, you know, and there's always consultants involved and they were
talking, they're going, look it, you know, we really need to focus on 1834. And all of a sudden
on Sunday afternoon, we're just too far away from what the station should be. And Dave Farrow,
in his credit, I think he fought for it to keep it.
And I still thought, you know, they could both live together.
But I get it.
And the 1834 numbers were not very good.
The 2554 numbers were fantastic.
In fact, I think the fall before the show ended, it was the best 2554 on the radio station.
But that's not what was driving us. Unfortunately, because
show good 2554
numbers to
any sales department and they're like,
that's a lot of money generated
2554. For whatever
reason, that's what advertisers
agencies like.
Yeah, I mean, at that
age, you've got like, typically
you have some cash to spend.
That's the idea.
I think it's kind of an old thought.
It actually should be.
Not me, of course.
It should be, you know, 25, 64 now or whatever.
I think when they first created that.
Yeah, they should bump it up.
Yeah, it's just like to say when you hit 54, you don't have any money to spend.
Right, right.
So anyway.
Okay, so if I, let me talk as a non-radio guy, but let's, let's say,
what was it?
18 to 34.
If you,
if that's your target demo and you're basically selling advertising based on
the number of years in that demo,
18 to 34.
So you have this six hour block on a Sunday,
which is performing very well with the older crowd,
but in the 18 to 34 demo that you're selling advertising based on it's under,
it's not performing well
there therefore because you've gone the station has decided we're 18 to 34 they now need that
six hour block that was doing well the older listeners they need to bring that back to the
18 to 34 so it's uh they don't you know what and now they could flip the other way right like they
could have said hey this six hours proves how good we can do for what was the other one 20 what's the other 25 54 25 54 yeah yeah like they could have said hey we're kicking ass 25 54 with
this block on sunday afternoons let's go uh 24 7 on that yeah and i think today and and fred was
right i think when fred um humble and fred put that uh i thought it was great and i listened to
that that show by the way it was good. I got in trouble for tweeting.
I'm the one who tweeted that.
I tweet on behalf of the Humble and Fred account.
I tweeted the email.
I'm not even supposed to tell this story, actually.
Go ahead.
I think I'll get in trouble.
There was a problem with me doing that
because I didn't actually ask permission
before I tweeted that letter to Edge.
But anyway, people can buy me a beer and get the real story.
But they were correct, I think.
I know they said it was just joking or half-joking.
I think that, you know, if they really had gotten the offer,
I think they might have, you know, been up for it.
But Fred was right, I think, in saying that, hey, look it, you know,
and it's not exactly true, but, you know, 1834s,
they're not listening to radio anymore.
You know, they are, but it's not like what it was. But he was right in saying that, you know, why don't, you know, you target the station for that older audience, but who, there's people that, you know, are over 30, over 35 upwards that, you know, still consume radio to, you know, an extent that advertisers are going to like. And why not?
And I think, you know, so five years ago, maybe not so much,
but today, you know, maybe they'd be interested in a show.
Even, you know, a Sunday show like Spirit of Radio Sunday.
Well, they just got rid of the morning show that they had for one year.
You mentioned you got 13 weeks at the move.
Yeah, and I think that's, I think, yeah, that is,
I think it's an illness of radio,
but there's so much pressure and, you know,
giving something time.
You know, it happens in television too, right?
They give a series enough time and then Netflix came along
and, you know, it changed everything.
So I think, you know, a year's really,
for a morning show,
trying to break through in Toronto is not fair,
but it's tough because
you got to make a decision at some point going are we gonna just have unknown to me and uh it's
a brother sister duo from vancouver so there was zero name recognition awareness in the gta i agree
and you drop them in and then 12 months later you send them back to bc yeah it's it's tough and
there really is a difference for anybody that's lived outside of Toronto in that.
And I lived in Vancouver for a couple of years.
And boy, you don't talk about Toronto.
If there's one other place in Canada that hates Toronto more than Montreal does, it's
Vancouver.
Wow.
And that's a true story.
And so certain things don't work.
And so, you know, certain things don't work.
And I just think trying to plug somebody in, like, you know, years ago with John Landecker back in radio, bringing in somebody from another market is tough to do.
It can happen.
It can work.
But it's going to take a lot of time. People want to know there's some, you're, you either have a history in the city or you just really plug in and just
give it time.
I don't know.
Well,
stay tuned.
We'll find out if 102 comes to their senses and decides we're going
spirit of radio 24 seven,
and then there'll be a calling you up,
Scott.
Okay.
We need you back.
I am looking for friends.
I am unemployed right now, so I'm looking
for work.
If you're listening out there, Chorus,
let's get Scott back in the fold there.
He knows his music.
I'm willing to talk. I have Humble and Fred
of my agents.
It's a four-day work week.
Don't start before 7.
Right.
We'll give you the midday or something
and then bring back everybody.
Marsden, Ivor Hamilton,
bring them all back.
Scott, that was amazing.
Yes, thank you.
You know, you went
like two hours and 20 minutes.
You're kidding.
Yeah, I'm not kidding.
I'm so sorry, everybody.
If you're still there.
I loved it
and that's really
what matters most.
Thank you.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks, and we're going
to schedule your sequel.
We need a sequel. Yes, I want to do the 90s and beyond. In the enjoyed it. Thanks. And we're going to schedule your sequel. We need a sequel.
Yes.
I want to do the 90s and beyond.
Okay.
And that brings us to the end of our 579th show.
You can follow me on Twitter.
I'm at Toronto Mike.
Scott, are you at Scott Turner?
S-K-O-T Turner on Twitter?
No, it's the C- S-C-O-T.
Oh my god.
I changed it somewhere in the 80s.
I changed it to S-C-O-T.
Obviously, I need to...
Oh, it still confuses people.
So, yeah, S-C-O-T
Turner is on Twitter
for Scott.
Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.
Thanks for the beer. Oh, enjoy the beer.
Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.
Make sure I get you your... Thanks for the pizza.
Lasagna, it's in the freezer. Oh, lasagna, okay.
They have pizza at Palma's Kitchen, but I'm
giving you lasagna. Sticker U
is at Sticker U.
Don't forget your sticker from Toronto Mike there. Thank you.
The Keitner Group, we're at keitnergroup.com
and Banjo Dunk is at Banjo Dunk Toronto Mike there. Thank you. The Keitner Group. We're at keitnergroup.com.
And Banjo Dunk is at Banjo Dunk with a C.
See you all next week.
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