Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #11
Episode Date: October 31, 2012Toronto Mike welcomes Sound guru Andrew who worked at CFNY and knows everyone in different ways. But first, Rosie got lost, Mike got carded and the gang discusses the Sandy Hype Machine that is our me...dia.
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Hey Rosie!
Hello!
We're back!
Happy Halloween! I love Halloween. I. We're back. Happy Halloween.
I love Halloween.
I have a spooky mug.
I see that.
That is a scary ghost and a pumpkin.
Wow.
I want to welcome everybody to episode number 11.
I've been waiting 11 episodes for this episode because this is for my very first favorite player in any sports
george bell who i worshipped idolized in the early 80s and when he hit 27 homers i was sure
that back then if 27 felt like 50 does today it was a different time and when he won the mvp award
in 87 it was top of the world. It was amazing.
And he's the reason I wear the number 11 when I play hockey or baseball.
It's always number 11 for George Bell.
So number 11, George Bell.
That's cool.
Even I know who George Bell is.
Okay.
I haven't really paid attention to him last time.
And I want to give a quick shout out to my buddy Mofo, my brother from another mother who he we go way back and he used to live in my mom's basement.
Believe it or not, he's good friends of my brother Steve and Mofo lost his grandpa this week. So I just wanted to give a shout out to Mofo and tell him my condolences.
Condolences from the entire staff of toronto miked when are we
getting when are we getting our intern i'm working on it you just want phil is that the deal phil by
the way uh from the humble and fred show has agreed to be a guest on an upcoming episode
because he's got lots of things to tell us about being Phil. So stay tuned for that.
Yeah, we'll just keep his mic dead until it's time to bring him in.
He's a good guy, Phil.
One more shout out to a commenter on TorontoMic.com.
Mike from Lowville.
Mike from Lowville.
I think he's been around forever.
I'm not sure exactly where Lowville is, but he's one of the many Mikes on the blog,
and he's from there.
Who the hell is Lowville?
I've heard of it.
Yeah, well...
I've never been there.
It's somewhere close by, but...
I always enjoy his comments.
They're always very thoughtful.
Yeah, he's a good guy, that Mike.
I'm sure he...
I've never met him in the real world,
but Mike from Lowville.
Your site is the real world.
You keep saying that.
You always say, I haven't met the commenters in the real world. But is the internet in the real world, but Mike from Louisville. Your site is the real world. You keep saying that. You always say I haven't met the commenters in the real world.
But is the internet not the real world?
It's a virtual world where people are more confident,
which gives them some false bravado and makes them say things they would never say if they knew you in person.
On a positive note, I feel that people are often more eloquent than they are in real life.
I'm making quotation marks.
Or they're like Elvis and Il Duce and they're just douchebags online I feel that people are often more eloquent than they are in real life. I'm making quotation marks.
Or they're like Elvis and Il Duce and they're just douchebags online when they're actually nice people in reality.
That's their choice.
Rosie, I got to ask you something.
You live at like Queensway and Royal York and we're here at Horner and Brown's line.
And you've been here every Tuesday for the last couple of months recording podcasts with me.
How the hell did you get lost coming here today? You know, I could lie and tell you that I was really busy,
but I just drove right past 30th Street.
I just did one of those, you know when you're driving
and your brain just stops, like you're not paying attention,
and I kind of came to you and I was at the East Mall.
So you actually, when your brain gets turned off
and you're on autopilot, you naturally go to Sherway Gardens.
Is that correct?
You know what?
That is my default internal GPS.
It just takes me to Sherway Gardens.
Can I tell a quick,
in fact, I'm going to tell a really quick
Sherway Gardens story.
So Friday night, Monica, my fiance,
and I were meeting the officiant,
the person who legally marries you.
And we met her at the Starbucks, the new Starbucks at Sherway Gardens.
There's a new Starbucks by the bay entrance, Rosie.
You look like you don't know this.
No, I actually haven't been to my...
I used to call Sherway my happy place because it was...
That's why you've been miserable lately.
And I haven't been in a while.
Actually, we go, we take the little guy there to throw pennies in the fountain.
Well, bring him back because there's a Starbucks now.
You'll enjoy it.
So we decide after this, we'll go across the street to this new restaurant called Beer Market.
It's good.
Okay.
I have...
Okay, you guys in this room, Mike Wixon, the wonderful producer, he's known me for a while.
I have a youthful exuberance about me.
Yeah.
But I happen to be 38 years old Is this shocking news to anyone?
I'm 38 years old
It is
It's a little shocking Mike
Because you thought I was much younger
You look a little younger than
Okay well
The beer market
Wouldn't let me inside the establishment
They carded me.
This is a true story.
Friday night.
That's great.
That's fantastic.
No, it's ridiculous.
No, it's fantastic.
I'm twice the legal age.
After I turned 30, when I get carded, I practically want to kiss the person who does it.
It's fantastic.
I think it's ridiculous.
Like, I was, come on.
Maybe it's different for a man.
Maybe for a woman, you get carded, you still feel youthful.
Oh, I don't, I just think it's silly.
Like, nothing about me looks 19.
Like, I don't look, I don't look in my 20s.
No, I don't think you look, I have to say, I don't think you look that young.
Is that why you have a gray beard on today?
I do have a gray beard.
You walked up and I was like, first of all, your sweater does look really kind of Nirvana.
Now, I'm wearing it.
It does.
It's Roddy Cartigan.
I thought the same thing.
It's true.
I don't take it off.
And you really do have that sort of grunge look going for you right now. Is that why. I don't take it off. And you really do have
that sort of grunge look
going for you right now.
Is that why?
I haven't shaved in a while.
I haven't shaved since
I got carded.
Are you really genuinely
you were upset you were carded?
No, I'm not upset.
Are you just trying to pretend
that you were upset?
No, I just think it's ludicrous
because maybe somebody on Twitter,
the Mad Hatter,
made a joke that I was being carded
for the seniors discount,
which is far more likely, in my opinion.
I look more...
I'm more likely to be... I know, no.
Anyways, I just thought it was funny that
I'm exactly two legal ages
old, so... You're double.
19 years ago, I was legal
to go in and drink a beer at the beer market.
So tell me, when they saw your driver's license
and they saw that you were born in 74,
did you get... I noticed when they look at mine and it says 7474 there's a look of like oh my god well she's old i
wonder like because it's a new place maybe the young trainee lady maybe the young lady got orders
to cart everybody like if i had gone in looking like an old man like wicks in here would i still
have been carted i doubt it old man voice i love his old man voice all right did you have the fondue
i didn't
I can't get ready
for the best part
We go in
It looks too cool for us
when we walk out
No it's not too cool
It didn't look like
what we thought
it was going to be
First of all
It was a Friday night
It's a franchise
Is it?
Yeah there's one downtown
Is it really German?
Because they spell it
like it's German
There's been one downtown
for years
God you really
You don't get out much
Why do you have to be
so hipster about everything?
I know It was too popular Hipsters don't go to much, do you? Why do you got to be so hipster about everything? I know.
It was too popular.
Hipsters don't go to Sherry Gardens.
Mike is so hip, he's actually never been anywhere.
Yeah, I'm not hip.
So where did you go?
Home.
To my place.
Yeah.
With the officiant?
No, no.
We did Starbucks with her.
Oh, okay.
Oh, then you guys went to eat.
Then they went to a movie and they went to get out after.
That's my kind of efficient, okay?
Bring her home.
How can something be too hipster when you can actually see Walmart from the front door?
It's like if you turn, you can see Walmart.
It's not that hip.
I didn't say hipster.
Cool is different than hipster.
You can be cool.
Well, hipster means you won't go near anything cool.
Oh.
Yeah.
I think I'm right.
You just blew my mind.
Okay.
Oh Yeah
I think I'm right
Right
It just blew my mind
Okay
Before I introduce
Our super special guest
I just wanted to ask
You guys about
The media hype machine
That surrounded
Hurricane Sandy
Because
Now we're doing a show
Now it's a show
This is a topical discussion
What do you think
I think
For a long time now,
the media has overblown all weather-related potential weather.
To a point where everybody gets worked up and scared.
And then it always underwhelms.
And then my fear is one day they're going to ignore.
They're going to completely ignore the next legitimate warning storm thing.
Everything's a-getting.
Something a-getting. something a-getting,
or apocalypse,
or Frankenstorm.
I think it's funny
they had to go to Frankenstorm
because they'd overused a-getting.
Everything's a-getting.
Weather is the ultimate,
it's the ultimate reality show, right?
You're from the Weather Network,
we should point out.
You have experience in weather.
People, first of all, people are genuinely, if you think you're not you don't care about
the weather you you do it's our default thing that we always talk about and it is the only thing where
you really actually don't know what's going to happen meteorology it's the only job where you
can be wrong every single day it's okay no one's gonna somebody says what about this weather you
can genuinely say i don't know right it right? It changes, right? It changes.
It changes.
And having worked at the Weather Network for years, the further out a forecast is, the
less chance of accuracy.
You really only know what's going to happen within a very short amount of time.
And what I find with the media here, I mean, of course, places where the hurricanes are
coming.
Oh, of course.
New Jersey and New York and stuff. They got slammed pretty good.
I watched it.
That's a sincere...
No, and emergency preparedness is important.
And you know what?
There are a few things you should always remember to have on hand.
Flashlights, so on and so forth.
But yesterday when I was at Costco, really, the Costco on the Queensway, people did not
need to be buying 20 cases of water and all the boxes of frozen burritos.
It's like you're probably...
People in Etobicoke, you're probably going to be fine.
Do you think they read the New Jersey reports and thought that applied for Toronto?
This is the thing.
We're getting the remnants of it.
After it's off the water, once it hits land, it loses steam.
You're just getting the remnants.
It's just people.
But I don't even think that's the media.
I just think that's people.
It's a frenzy.
It's like a mob mentality.
Even I started to get caught up in it.
I'm like, oh my God, do I need water?
It was ridiculous. And I forced myself to be like, it and I'm like oh my god do I need water it was ridiculous
and I forced myself
to be like no
I just think that's how
people shop at Costco
you have a point
you have a point
because then I went over
to No Frills
really everybody there was fine
I'm like different crowd
these people have seen it
these people have seen it all
everybody was fine
I was like these are my people
no one's freaking out
there's still water available
but it's
you do have a point
I do think that's the
Costco way mentality
I treat every day like it's a hurricane day I do think that's the carnage at Costco.
I treat every day like it's a hurricane day.
Exactly.
I think it was interesting that the news had to keep telling us that, okay, in the past we've tried to freak you out about lead in your water and about how there's a pedophile
living on your street.
Or H1N1 is going to kill you.
Yeah, that's right.
And did you know that flesh eating disease is in the schools and all this sort of stuff?
And so they actually had to start saying, now I know we've bullshit you a lot.
Yeah, exactly.
But really, really,
this is real.
The subways are going to fill with water.
Okay, New York?
So really, really start to take,
and I thought that was interesting.
And it was constant.
Okay, in the past,
we've said this about storms,
but we really mean it this time.
I thought that was weird.
I agree.
And in Toronto,
I'm not trying to make light of something
that killed 38 people in the States.
And we did have one death.
A sign did hit somebody at Kel and uh saint claire and apparently it was even
bolted down the whole nine yards and it just ripped it right off yeah i know that staples
well because well that's near george bell arena a different george bell than my hero as he's a
different george bell my son plays there every saturday but uh yeah that's tragic we did one
torontonian is dead because of the wind but at
the end i hate that expression but at the end of the day it was a windy day with rain and you know
you oh i think we've actually had way worse we've had worse wind than that it was very windy though
i wouldn't want people to be walking around out there absolutely and the flying debris in the sun
that but we have these 24 7 news cycles that need to be fed and now we have to feed them something
and then you have, the content comes from
whatever you can find,
I guess.
I just think it's a bad idea.
They sure,
they sure surfed that hurricane.
That's what I know.
I know.
Like it was a really big,
like it's all,
Oh,
on CNN they had a lady
and like standing in water,
you know,
don't go outside.
She just stood in water
the whole night.
They kept showing that crane
that was dangling
because that's like the only,
only anything was the crane.
That's creepy.
But I was thinking that's all you got.
Let's go.
I saw a funny tweet.
Somebody tweeted, Anderson Cooper just flew by my window.
This guest I want to introduce right now knows each of us in different ways.
This is a bizarre little tale.
I want everyone to pay attention, okay?
So his name is Andrew Stokely,
and Andrew worked at CFNY with Mike Wixon. Yes. Did work with, at the Sky Dome, can I call it that?
Dome Productions. Dome Productions, audio work with Rosie, And I know him from TorontoMike.com,
where we've known each other via sort of digital channels that way for a while
because I know his wife from work I've done with Ford Canada.
She's a marketing person there, and I meet her at events.
Like, I'll go to blue events.
What's her title?
PR.
Okay.
Don't say marketing.
I'm so sorry
i'm not allowed to talk about different budget entirely we can't even go there okay pr she's a
pr person at ford canada and i see her at leaf games if i'm lucky enough to maybe now i'll get
more tickets you've been to more leaf games than i have yeah probably true i get they're awesome
so i know her and then i know him as a andrew here as a fan so we all kind of know andrew
through these different channels.
But Andrew, welcome to Toronto Mic'd episode 11.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's nice to be here.
I went through and listened to all the shows once again just to kind of get myself familiar.
And so I'm happy to be here.
And it's my old hood.
This is great.
Yeah, you mentioned that.
You live just a street over?
A street over, yeah.
And I didn't know you guys were here.
And so it was easy to find and...
It was what? No. I had no. And I didn't know you guys were here. So it was easy to find. It was what?
No.
I had no trouble.
I don't know what happened.
It was easy to find.
You know, every week you guys are always late, okay?
It never starts at 5 o'clock.
That isn't fair.
It kind of means a dick on me.
Except that Angie was here early.
It's like 12 past 30 straight.
And then she did get here and I got on the phone to Humble Howard.
And so, sorry, I shouldn't say anything.
It's teasing. You know what?
I should have known the week that we're having Andrew on that everything would run promptly,
because when I worked for Dome, part of my job was I crewed the mobile productions.
So a huge part of that was crewing the baseball games and the football games and all the hockey games for the visiting teams.
the visiting teams.
And, you know, when you're crewing for, you know, for
TSN and for all these, you know, very
important clients, and the
visiting clients are obviously
very important too, it's really, really important
that you have the best production
people. And, you know, camera
operators are obviously very important,
and the video guys are very important, but
the audio people, the
directors, if you didn't have a good audio guy on that crew sheet,
man, did you hear about it.
And every single time I had Andrew Stokely's name on a crew sheet,
let's just say everybody was very, very, very happy.
And it's because he's a total pro, amazing at what he does.
I used to sit in meetings, and we would literally, me and other scheduling coordinators,
we would fight over him for events.
Because as you know, in Toronto, there's often competing events going on,
and you'll have a million different sporting events.
It's not just sporting events that go to air.
You have things like Much Music Awards and all this other stuff, and they all overlap.
And we would fight. You don't share your audio guide. Oh my gosh.
Well, I've got Andrew for that.
We would fight.
Did you win these fights?
Well, Toronto was my
market, so usually Toronto used to
win. Of course. I used to win.
That's the way it should be.
They would try to keep us in the
home city for budget costs or Well, we'd also win. They would try to keep us in the home city.
Exactly.
For budget costs or whatever.
Keep it down.
Because I'm here.
There's only about eight of us, nine of us, that do what I do in this country.
You should tell us what you do exactly.
Well, what I am, if you're at home watching a sporting event, everything you hear, I'm
in charge of.
So announcers, effects, music, replay moves that you see the replay and
everything, live replays. So any sound element that you hear in a broadcast, the A1 or the audio
operator or mixer, engineer, I don't consider myself an engineer because I don't have an
engineering degree, but there are guys who have that. And guys who are way more experienced than
I am, we're in charge of that. So any sound element in the production,
I'm responsible for.
I don't think people appreciate
how much audio makes what they see happen.
You don't really get the full experience
and you know bad audio.
That's the other thing.
Well, you know, I have a tagline on my email
and it says, you know, no one a tagline on my email and it says you know
no one cares about audio until they can't hear it i actually remember i remember when i first
would when i would be crewing and i would be emailing andrew and you would have that in your
i actually remember you having that in your email and i'm i would think i'm like that's a really
good point it's true because if you have your your your video the baseball game the video
is on and actually one of the video operators even said point. It's true, because if you have your video, the baseball game, the video is on.
And actually, one of the video operators
even said this to me.
He's like, if you lose audio,
there's only so long people are going to watch for it.
But if you lose video and the audio is still there,
they hang in.
You're still good.
I mean, look, what are we doing right now?
We're talking, right?
How would our podcast be without audio?
In fact, right off the top of the show,
the video pretty much died,
and so we're going with our video again.
And someone's still listening.
This is supposed to be
a TV show.
You said you went back, Andrew,
and you listened to
the first 10 episodes
or whatever.
How did they sound?
You could tell
if you listen to your pilot
or what you guys
considered your pilot,
you can hear
a really strong progression
from episode one
to episode 10.
The first thing I hear when I listen to people, especially if we have new talent, is you can
hear a quiver in somebody's voice.
Are they confident?
Right.
And you could hear the difference between Rosie and Mike, and it's not anything as opposed
to Mike, who has done this for years.
Mobile Mike, yeah.
You hear the difference in the voice, and that's what I noticed has really improved over the 10 episodes.
You could hear the confidence in your voices improve and your interaction and all that as you progress, which I thought was great.
I mean, the production quality was fine.
Everything sounds great in here.
Ha, Mike, which is I know what you're looking for.
That's what I was looking for.
But you can hear it in the voices. That's really important.
I wanted to be a marine zoologist.
I wanted to study sharks.
That's what I wanted to do.
Like George Costanza.
Yeah.
I study sharks.
I love them.
Actually, we were supposed to go to South Africa this fall for my 40th birthday
to go on a research boat off the coast of South Africa and study great whites.
Wow.
We bought a house instead.
So that trip kind of went away.
That's how it goes.
Yeah.
But my science grades in high school,
once I hit the upper, not science,
I guess it was more the math, kind of went down.
So my guidance counselor said,
you know, you're struggling.
We don't think you're going to make it.
What else do you like to do? And I was probably in grade 10. And I said, well, you know,
I like music and, you know, I kind of DJ on the side. And they said, well, why don't you start to explore that? And so I started DJing and we started a radio station. I grew up in Brampton.
So we started a radio station at Turner, which is now I think called Turner Fenton
High School, which is just down off of Kennedy Road in Kennedy and Steeles in Brampton.
And the rest is kind of history. I, you know, radio, you know, that's the old saying, you know,
radio is theater of the mind, right? That's the old. So you hear people and you see in your minds
and... You know what's really weird, Andy, is I didn't know that about you.
And this is the absolute truth.
We have the exact same high school story.
My guidance counselor said, look, you're not going to be a lawyer.
Your marks aren't going to carry you.
You don't have the right study habits.
What can you do?
What are you interested in?
And they directed me the same way.
So when I heard that, when I heard you say that,
I was like,
wow,
I wonder if nowadays they're like,
so you like video games.
Why don't you explore that?
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
You know,
at the time,
we were at the tail end of radio.
Oh,
absolutely.
You know.
So you worked with.
How did you end up?
That's what I was thinking.
How did you end up at CFNY?
It's a weird story.
It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime coincidences, weird stories.
So I'm at my friend Glenn's house. We're getting ready for school, and we were listening to NY.
I had an older brother who was four years older and was a huge NY fan.
So I got turned on to the station through him. And being a Brampton boy, we were proud of this station,
especially when it used to be the old Chick FM way up in northern Brampton.
Disco!
Yeah, this old house was all female announcers before they moved down to Kennedy Road.
So we were in there, and Live Roll Jive in Beverly Hills was hosting in the morning.
It was kind of a transition period at that time of the station.
And they threw this contest on to win a psychedelic first box set. hosting in the morning. It was kind of a transition period at that time at the station.
And they threw this contest on to win a psychedelic first box set. Were they doing weekends at the time? No. Weekend mornings or the actual morning?
No, it was the morning mornings. Because I know they did both and stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Because I was at school. We were getting ready for school. So I dialed in the number. I can't remember what the phone
number was anymore. But I dialed in and it rang through. And Earl
picks up and puts me on air and he says, you know, blah, blah, blah.
And we were talking, and he said, you know, he said, I'm a student at Turner.
And he said, that's great.
What's the best thing about Turner?
I said, it's our new radio station we've just started.
You know, it was called Turner FM, even though, you know, it was just being played into the PA speakers at the school.
So he said, well, great.
Well, you've won this box set.
Hold on to the line.
I said, okay.
So he put me on line and he came on.
And he asked me about the radio station.
I said, yeah.
He goes, well, why don't you come in and we'll chat?
I said, okay, sure.
So I went into the station and I met Earl and I met Bev and we chatted.
And he said, listen, I met Paul, Paulie D, who was the assistant music director.
I forgot that.
Yeah, because Earl was basically the music director and Bev, and then Paul was there.
And he said, listen.
Reiner Schwartz was the program director at the time, right?
I think it was just before Reiner.
I can't remember.
No, it was Reiner.
It was Reiner.
Yeah, it was Reiner.
He hadn't left yet by then.
So he said, listen, we're in this weird state right now.
We're getting ready to convert digitally.
So we're getting rid of all of our vinyl and we're converting to CDs.
And he says, I need somebody, just a volunteer, to come in a couple hours a week and help me time CDs.
Go to the posts.
So when the DJ gets the disc, he can go, okay, I've got 15 seconds to give the time, you know, so when the DJ gets the disc,
he can go, okay, I've got 15 seconds
to give the time, the weather,
before the post hits.
And I said, okay, sure.
So he says, I can't pay you.
That's fine.
He says, but I can give you all the music you want
for the radio station.
That is so cool.
And I was like, you've got to be kidding me.
I was thinking, this is amazing.
And so that's kind of how it went.
And I just, I did that.
And, you know, at that time that's kind of how it went. And I did that and
you know, at that time there
was a lot of changes. The week I kind of started
was the week that McLean Hunter
bought, took over,
and it went from total alternative
to top 40.
Well, they said that they wanted to dabble
into the top 40, but right away it was like
Madonna. Madonna.
It was like...
Is this 1990 or 91 but right away it was like Madonna. There was no dazzling.
Is this 1990 or 91?
No, it was
87, 88
in around there. And then there became this
whole on-air and this
culture shift at the station.
You walked in right in the middle of it, I guess.
Yeah.
And then as it progressed, Earl and
Bev left.
Earl was in here recently, by the way.
Was he?
Yeah, and he's hilarious, and he's a lovely guy.
Apparently, I'm the whole mixer for the Blue Jays.
So if you're listening to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sportsnet, you're hearing my work.
But one of the guys I work with was there one night, and he sent me a text and said,
Earl's at the baseball game.
And I went out, and out by that time he had left
so I didn't get a chance to say hi so
I owe him
there's a couple of guys at CFY who I really owe
Earl was one of them
and Scott Turner
Scott Turner was a great guy
now that you bought your house
he can house sit for you because that's what he does
professionally Earl oh really yeah it's really cool
he does it for the celebrities it's cool I didn't know because that's what he does professionally, Earl. Oh, really? Yeah, it's really cool. He does it for the celebrities.
It's cool. Okay.
I didn't know that.
That's good.
Yeah.
Wow.
And what about Martin Streak?
Did you know him?
Yeah, I knew Marty.
I think that was the reason I actually was one of the real factors of hitting your site
and getting to talk with you.
I knew Martin not as well as everyone else.
You know, he was really close with Chris Pack and Bobo.
I mean, those three guys were the roadshow,
the video roadshow, you know,
and I'd go at the odd time and help out.
But I was strictly a fill-in guy.
Just if Chris or Bobo wasn't available,
I would just go out and just kind of have a blast.
You worked with Chris Pack? Yeah. I know you know Chris from the other channel. available, I would just go out and just kind of have a blast. You worked with Chris Pack?
Yeah.
I know you know Chris from the other channel.
Yeah.
He did my wedding video.
Oh, really?
Holy crap, he did mine too.
You're not serious.
I'm dead serious.
Oh, wow.
I did my wedding video.
Now he owns a renovation company.
That's hilarious.
808 Renos.
He's very talented at the home reno stuff.
He's a great guy.
Yeah, Chris is great. Chris is really nice. Do you stay in. He's very talented at the home. He's a great guy. Chris was, yeah, Chris is great.
Chris is really nice.
Do you stay in touch with Bobo as well?
No.
Bobo, if you're out there, please get in touch, man.
He was the nicest guy ever.
They were a cool trio, those guys.
And he knew Bobo.
Bobo was like Martin.
Martin, you know, for Martin's persona and if he went out, like my favorite thing to
do was I used to go to Whiskey Saigon on Sundays when I was still downtown.
And I was going to school and, you know, the retro night, you know,
and Martin was in his element.
I mean, he loved that.
Rosie, don't hit our guests.
That's the second guest you hit.
I'm beating up Andrews.
I'm so excited.
Don't hit Andrew.
You hit Elvis, too, as I recall.
You're slappy.
Stop hitting our guests.
But, you know, Martin, his persona.
But if you ever saw Martin's record collection,
he had one of the most extensive collections I've ever seen on goth and industrial.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, he had stuff, rare imports from Germany, like in the late 70s, early 80s,
stuff that you would never, ever hear of.
He had it.
I mean, you know, Alan Cross has an amazing record collection.
And I personally packed Earl's and Bev's record collection
when they were moving from their house
and lived in North Bramalea.
I helped them move that.
And that was insane.
But I mean, Martin had an amazing collection, you know.
So I was really...
I don't know if people know this,
but you painted a picture of Martin just now that I don't know if people know.
He ran the video roadshow, which was the cornerstone of that station.
There was no other reason to have that station at the time unless they had that video roadshow because it generated audience.
And he was the face of the station for seven years before anybody really put him on the air, maybe more.
But he ran the show.
Like, professionally, he dealt with the schools.
He organized the crews. He organized the schools. Like, professionally, he dealt with the schools. He organized the crews.
He organized the schools.
And that was how he came into the business.
And he was really good at it, as Andrew points out.
And that's the other thing.
Because they would have, if you had the dance, you know, they'd advertise the Stephen Wyvita Rose Show with special guest Alan Cross or Don Burns or, you know, Scott Turner.
It wasn't Martin.
But Martin was the guy who did everything,
and Chris and Bo were there.
Martin would deal with the electricians at the school.
He would do the lineups for the videos.
He would have that, and then the DJ would just come on and go,
hey, welcome, and do the DJ thing, but it was Martin's baby.
Yeah, he was all pro and a very good businessman for that station
for a lot of years.
Yeah, he was all pro and a very good businessman for that station for a lot of years.
So you found Toronto Mike's site by looking up for Martin's information.
Isn't that interesting?
Somebody emailed me and said the news.
So I didn't know at first really what had happened.
And then I found Mike's website and followed that really extensively.
For people who don't know, we could probably tell them what the news was i guess but that marden street killed himself so mike would you think for those who are listening a lot of people found your site
through that yeah well it's still that day the night that uh marden was found dead uh is by far
the most traffic my site ever saw in its. And it's 10 years old this month.
In November, it's 10 years old.
And it's by far, but not even close.
Well, that's because a guy literally put his hand
inside the hands of other people all day and all night.
He must have met hundreds of thousands of people a year.
He was, for me, the station changed.
A lot of the talent left.
The people that I grew up with and listened to had left.
But he was, when Brother Bill left to go to Vancouver,
that was a knife right in the heart.
But I'm happy for him.
He's having a blast out there.
Brother Bill, another great guy.
Oh, my God.
He's on CFOX out there in Vancouver.
What's his real name? He goes by his real name right Neil Morrison
I didn't know if I was allowed to say that
yeah he's going by that out there
but you know Martin was
the last
I guess link he was the link to that
the spirit of radio
he really was
that's what it was about Martin you're 100%
right man he was beloved because he was everybody's connection to the past to radio. That era, yeah. He really was. You know what? That's what it was about Martin. You're 100% right, man.
He was beloved
because he was
everybody's connection
to the past
and he seemed to be
a good visionary
for the future with music.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was cool.
Yeah.
So he, you know,
it was tough
and I wasn't around
when the memorial service
and all that,
so, but you know.
Anyway, man.
Yeah, no, he's missed.
This is, I think,
the second episode
we've done.
Did you go to that? Martin Streak, no. I did not go to that. No, it was weird.'s missed. This is, I think, the second episode we've done. Did you go to that?
Martin Street.
No, I did not go to that.
No, it was weird.
The thing is, I would feel estranged going to that because I didn't know him personally.
You would have been there reporting.
I would be like an embedded journalist in the room.
I didn't want to do that.
You know what?
One thing I will say about that day when I did go to your site, that's where Howard told
me to go because I didn't believe it.
He said, I don't know if it's true, but it's on Toronto Mic.
So I think that it might be real, and that's where I went.
Do you guys know Steve McCauley?
He's working at a radio station in Oshawa.
Doesn't ring a bell, no.
Then I won't complete this thought.
I want to ask Andrew.
You work in audio.
You have worked in audio for many, many years.
And you obviously loved CFNY and alternative music.
What kind of music do you like?
What do you listen to?
What's in your record collection?
Right now?
Well, I was really happy to hear Rosie and Gray as the closing song for the last.
They are my favorite band.
It's, you know, everyone says, if you have that one disc,
you know, I would take Shakespeare in my butt
and I would not take anything else.
What's your favorite song on that?
Subversive.
It's a great song.
You know?
So Long Bernie is my favorite song
because I can play it on the guitar.
It was one of the first songs
I learned to play on the guitar.
And that's a whole other story.
Steve and Ron and those guys,
when I went to Ryerson,
I was in charge of the entertainment programming
for the three years that I was there.
And they were just coming out.
And so we used to have them a lot
play at Ryerson.
And they had played our picnic
and all sorts of stuff.
So I have a real soft spot for them.
Are they back together?
Did I hear that they recorded something new?
They are doing some recording.
Actually, I think Steve's playing a show this weekend.
Well, I can't date it.
I guess it's the 1st or I guess it'd be the 2nd of November.
Okay.
Wicked, his band, his other offshoot sisters.
If you go to lowestofthelow.com, you can see it has their listings.
But they were out in Buffalo. I saw them this summer at the Art Parkthelow.com, you can see it has their listings. But Steve and those.
But they were out in Buffalo.
I saw them this summer at the art park in Lewiston.
So they played as lowest of the low.
Yeah.
Cool.
Yeah.
They sounded just.
Like they did.
Yeah.
You know, it was great.
I was, you know, so.
Yeah.
Andrew and I were exchanging emails today or yesterday,
and we talked about what it would cost for me
to get lowest of the low to play my wedding. That was the discussion. Like, how much money would that cost? Well, and we talked about what it would cost for me to get Lowest of the Low to play my wedding.
That was the discussion.
Like, how much money would that cost?
Well, and Scott, my husband just told me that Ron Hawkins has a new band.
Yeah, the Rusty Nails have been put to bed.
Yeah, that's been a while.
It's been a while.
But he's got a...
And they're like Ron Hawkins and the something Assassins?
Oh, yeah.
But I think that's a bar band that he does, isn't it?
Oh, okay.
It's kind of like when...
I don't know about that. Pursuit of Happiness used to do their 80s...
What the hell do they call this?
I can't remember now.
Moe and...
Oh, I like the Pursuit of Happiness.
It was awesome when they did that.
What did they call that?
I remember Platinum Blonde did a good one, too, called Orange Alert.
I used to always see Platinum Blonde.
Yeah, Moe Berg?
Yeah, always when...
Davenport?
In the clubs downtown.
I would trip over him
all the time, yeah.
He used to DJ
at the club on college.
And he was like a buddy
with Axl Rose, right?
Am I right?
This Moe Berg and Axl
were buddies
and Moe used to go down
to California or whatever.
He's still a cool guy.
I'm pretty sure, yeah.
I used to play ball hockey
because I used to do
tech support for Dave,
the drummer.
He used to shop
at the computer store
I worked at.
And I knew these guys from CFY and stuff like that.
So they used to play ball hockey at a Catholic high school at college on Sundays.
And they have a full league.
And it was week after week with standings and all that.
Yeah.
So cool.
Mo took his hockey seriously.
Love it.
He had this song where they had this song, Wayne Gretzky Rocks.
Yeah.
He wears his hockey. Boy, oh boy, Wayne Gretzky rocks. Yeah, he wears his hawk.
Boy, oh boy, I love the hawks, but where was it? Everyone knows I love
the hawks, but boy, oh boy, Wayne Gretzky
rocks, I think is the
tagline. We're a real
statics discussion away from the holy
trifecta, if we can do Lois and Lois.
Oh, wow.
Thank you.
Oh, am I back? Okay. I don't know what happened there, bud. Thank you. Oh, am I back?
Okay.
I don't know what happened there, but...
Real quick, one quick thing here before we check out
is that you mentioned to me as well,
you had a role on the Canadian show, The Newsroom.
Not the newsroom that Rosie and I like to fight about
that Aaron Sorkin wrote, but the Ken Finkelman...
The Ken Finkelman production, yeah.
We could fight about that too, actually, if you want. What did you think? I actually really, really liked Ken Finkelman newsroom. We could fight about that too actually if you want. What did you think? I actually
really, really liked Ken Finkelman's
first season of the newsroom.
Okay, the first season I'll give you. The second season
I think he lost his mind.
Well, which one are we talking about? Are we
talking about the original series that
they shot at the CBC? The CBC one.
Like episodes 1 through 6
and then they did 7 through
12 and then they did a one-hour movie.
That was what they considered the first season, and then he did...
No, but one to six we're talking about, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
How does Ken think of my movie?
I have some great Ken stories.
Is he a kook?
He's a kook, but he is awesome.
Nice guy?
Super nice.
And, you know, he...
Anyway. Come on, he... Anyway.
Come on, give us one for the party.
All right.
So everyone knows that he's written things like Who's That Girl with Madonna, and he's done a bunch of stuff.
But what he's probably most famous for in Hollywood was Airplane 2.
He wrote and he directed it.
And the only reason he got the gig, because he was telling us this once once at lunch is that he used to be a staff writer for paramount pictures and um uh jeffrey katzenberg
and uh the older guy who ran paramount pictures were sitting around airplane had just come out
and it was a smash hit and the zucker brothers were asking too much money to write the new one
so they said well we need somebody to do it because we still own the rights.
And so literally Ken was in his office
and they came over and they said,
you're writing the Airplane 2 sequel.
And he went, okay.
And he said, make as many jokes as you can,
that same style, but it's going to be in space.
And that's what they told him to do.
So he wrote it and as he handed it in,
they didn't have anybody who could direct it.
And so they said, all right, you're going to direct it too.
Well, Ken said he had no idea how to direct, so the DOP helped him to set up shots and
all that.
But he said the best deal of that is that his royalties, because he was the writer and
the director, he gets about 6% or 7% royalties every time that movie is shown, bought, sold,
or whatever.
So he said he spent about three years living somewhere in an apartment above the Champs-Élysées
doing nothing but eating bread, drinking really strong coffee, and smoking substances that
were for better times, I guess.
So heaven, basically.
He said it was fantastic and allowed him to do other stuff.
And then he came back. But yeah, it was fantastic and allowed him to do other stuff and then he came
back and but yeah it was
it was a great God I want
his life you know and
that I mean that show
really spawned a lot of
classic Andrew will you
come back for episode 12
I'd love to if you have
me back sure yeah awesome
great chatting with you
thanks everybody for
listening chatting with you. Thanks everybody for listening.