Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #68

Episode Date: February 12, 2014

Mike chats with Elvis about recent controversies with episodes featuring Todd Shapiro, Alan Cross and Humble Howard's girlfriend.

Welcome to the 68th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com. Joining me is my brother from another mother, Elvis. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. Welcome back, Elvis. Hey, Mike. How's it going? Good. Where have you been in the world since you last recorded here? I've been trying to do the show, but you're having all these amazing guests that I've, waiting for the phone call. Since you last recorded here, there's been one week after the other, there was Jono, Jonathan Torrance.

Yep. And there was Alan Cross. Very cool guests. The ongoing history of Alan Cross. And there was some guy named Todd Shapiro. All boring, but good guests. I actually, a few controversies have erupted over recent guests and we're going to get into that. Yeah.

Have you, but I need to know right off the bat. Yeah. Did you listen to any of those three interviews? Absolutely not. You know, you seem to like Alan. If I were anyone else,

you would listen. This is what I was thinking. I actually generally wanted to listen to Alan cross and actually the other two, I did genuinely think they were interesting but i i figured why would i start listening to your shitty podcast now because i have to you know why all of a sudden am i going to deviate from from my my past sort of uh experiences well you know we want we recently we bragged about being number 14 in itunes so i feel

like we should uh mention that we recently hit number three. So are you suggesting then that if I were to listen, we would go up even further? My goal is to be number two behind This American Life. We're so close to This American Life, I can reach out. How amazing would it be if we beat This American Life just once? You can grab that screenshot. That would just reveal how flawed the iTunes algorithm is. That's so right.

I would be like the guy who uncovers, like, you know, I just saw a video, like, Facebook, the fake likes are making Facebook a mint of money. And there's this huge controversy of all these fake likes and why they can't get rid of the fake likes and how it's costing all the advertisers money. And I was thinking, like, I'll be the guy who puts the video together to show, like, how the iTunes rankings, look at my numbers, look at what I did, and look, I just passed this American life. Well, it's all a game, right? And you can game the system.

And just look at Twitter and their recent investor call. They got killed because they only added a million or so members in the last quarter. And they have no plan to basically add more members. Engagement is going down because everything, you can buy followers. It's all sort of a you know people gaming the system you know our our friends humble and fred uh one day they one day their twitter count and their facebook likes went up like 10,000 each like just overnight really didn't make it a little bit of an investment they made an investment they bought these likes and i remember and i told them i said like i don't think this is a good idea

like i i would never buy a like it just sounds like a generally a bad idea and uh they got this like false you first of all you're only fooling yourself we're like you get this false sense of popularity like these aren't real people they're all like in some kind of in india in some kind of like farm where they all like like they get they get paid like a penny a like or whatever they get paid and probably not even a penny. Not even a penny. Probably not. Then maybe I will invest. This sounds like a good deal.

Actually, I looked into it just out of curiosity because they were talking about it a lot on the news. And it's not all that much money. I just looked at the Twitter followers, and it's not all that much money. I think it was like $70 for $1,000. Does that make sense? Or is it even less than that?

It could be less than that. But you're in the right ballpark. I mean, you're paying less than $100, and you're getting a significant box. Elvis, I earned every one of my 4,000 followers. Good for you. I think I have – I doubled it in the last six months. I think I'm up to 1,300. I thought you were going to say 13.

No, 1,300. Very good. Yeah. But you did go – It doesn't really mean much, I don't think. No, I mean, none of it – it's all like, none of it means anything. That's the funny thing. We all were measuring these likes and these followers, and it doesn't mean anything.

And they're all boring. They really are all boring. It's all incredibly boring. What was your favorite, I'm going to put you on the spot here. Okay. What was your favorite interview of the three now i admittedly they're all different and it was very i you know if i can put words in your mouth i'm guessing that it was pretty you know exciting to have these three famous people i'm putting air quotes because

unless you're in toronto or in canada yeah they're toronto famous they're toronto famous jonathan torrence is probably north american famous for his part in Trailer Park Boys. But which of the three did you feel, two-part question, which one were you the most excited to have here? And then which of the three did you felt you did the best job in terms of chemistry and getting the information that you wanted to get? Well, they were all three so different. They were so different like in how i responded and how it went i think i was most excited about todd shapiro because i knew he had a story to tell and i knew this story would you know blow some minds in the city like i know there's a lot of people who are very interested

in this story right and i knew there was a he flirted for a while uh not just with me but with the idea of telling this story and he went back and forth between like no i don't think i should tell it i think i'll tell it i don't think i should tell it and then i honestly like i served him scrambled eggs and coffee and sat him down and i asked the questions i knew would lead to that story and i did not get that story but i thought like because there was a big upside like this potential story that was going to be revealed here that one i was psyched about i thought like there's a good good chance maybe he'll spill these beans. Okay. Fair. But he did not spill the beans. But you have to understand where he's... I mean, the people

on your blog have been a little bit ridiculous with this whole... Oh, we can't talk about the controversies yet. I have a whole segment planned. So what was the one that you felt went the best? Like, it was not that Todd's didn't go well, but you didn't get necessarily what you wanted. Probably, you know, the expectation was that you weren't going necessarily what you wanted uh probably you know but i got the expectation

was that you weren't going to get it anyway but and you know even alan cross was amazing when he opened up about uh martin streak and i felt like i like it was just like i enjoyed all three of these interviews were with people i actually were interested in i don't as long as i'm doing this for free i can't sit across somebody i don't give a shit about or whatever i can't fake it like i can't start getting into a story i don't care about yep that's why i rarely talk to you about your life you understand but these all three of these guys i was legitimately interested in and the jonathan was the most to me it was a pleasant surprise because it kind of came out of thin air he didn't know who i was this is a guy who literally googled tor Podcast Studio so he could record with Taggart from Our Lady Peace.

So he Googles Toronto Podcast Studio. I'm like a top five result. He then writes me an email just saying, like, can I come and record my podcast on Thursday night? We go back and forth discussing this. And at the end of it, I basically say, you should come on my podcast. And he says, sure and then he literally he took a 40 cab ride from downtown toronto in like this 90 minute window we had between meetings to come here to record an entire hour and then spend 40 bucks to get his ass back there like and then the interview he was such a nice guy uh super

super nice and easy to talk to i met him for the first time and by like five minutes in i felt totally comfortable with this guy so that was a pleasant surprise i really enjoyed the jonathan torrens interview awesome awesome sounds like a it sounds like a like just sort of a perfect storm and it seemed to happen all at once which which you know let's not let's not kill ourselves is likely the real reason why you're at the very top. It's the Todd, actually. Well, they all did well, but the Todd one. Us two bozo's just riffing back and forth isn't necessarily

going to grab a whole bunch of listeners. Well, you know what? Let's get a reality check now. Let's see what happens when we do a regular one without this Todd Shapiro exclusive. Let's find out how... I don't care. I'm not monetizing this. This is completely a fun hobby still. So I don't really care if we're in iTunes ranking. Now, is it still fun though? This

is another thing I want to ask you because there has been a lot of crap going on on the blog over the last few weeks with all of this, you know, increased intention and increased celebrity. Are you finding it less fun because of the negativity that's being thrown at you? Or is this sort of you're used to it because you've been running this blog for so long? I'm definitely used to it. But this attracted a whole new audience. I call the Dean Blundell. So let's dive in. This is a good segue. Let's dive in. So we have identified three, I think, interesting controversies that have arisen from recent podcasts. Okay? Okay.

Let's go in reverse chronological order and start with the Toddy Tickles controversy. So the most recent. This is the most recent. So this was my last episode, episode 67. I tried to save 69 for Toddy Tick i couldn't do it that's mine i want to be on you might be it's a you know you know what might be throw it up jeff merrick is coming in next week i really want to meet jeff merrick is that true uh yes i think you're just doing that to be nice no i i really like jeff uh i've always liked his work i think he's a great broadcaster i

think he's funny and he's so he's so diverse like he started the our introduction to jeff merrick to go on a tangent here for a second i think is from the wrestling show now yes yeah i'm the fan 590 yeah um and he had a wrestling show i mean it was an hour show once a week and he talked about wrestling i got lots of overlaps with him because jason agnew is a name no one in Toronto circles, is a name my brother's very good friend in high school who started the hockey pool that I run today. And he, I think, took over live audio wrestling from Jeff Merrick, I think. So I want to talk to Jeff Merrick. I got questions about the live audio wrestling because that guy knew his shit.

I used to hear that. And at 640, he used to do some stuff uh when the mojo days yep and i got and i i know that i this is a wonderful story that jeff merrick buried harold ballard what yeah he was a grave digger at it's not too far from here like on bluer and prince edward there's a cemetery that's crazy and he's the so he always he has a great joke a great line and i'm gonna butcher it now but it's something about everybody wanted to get rid of harold ballard but i did something about it he's got a great line he uses that part but yeah i like it uh so have you met jeff before oh yeah yeah you have yes okay uh i know him through humble and fred so he's uh he knows them from

640 and he's been on that show and i've been in the room with him and his uh big dog well tell him tell him i really i really like his uh i. Well, tell him I really like his style. He might get 69. I like his show on CBC. He moved over to the Mothership. That was very exciting, I thought. Isn't he? Okay, but now he's on Rogers.

Now he's back on Rogers, yeah. So yeah, I think I'm really excited. Of the four, if we include the three previous, probably Alan Cross and Jeff Merck would be one too for me. Maybe you should listen to Alan Cross. Yeah, maybe. You know, it's include the three previous, probably Alan Cross and Jeff Mark would be one too for me. Maybe you should listen to Alan Cross. Yeah, maybe. You know, it's free.

Is it really? On iTunes, it says free. Like I was going to say, make it 99 cents. It says explicit and that I'm not allowed to download things that are explicit. That makes sense. Sorry, go on with the tickles. The first controversy we'd like to discuss involves Todd Shapiro, formerly of the Dean Blundell show on 102.1 The Edge.

So basically, I do this hour interview. I ask him every question I can think of. I did my homework on this. I asked the audience for what questions would you like me to ask. Yep. I actually have notes, as you see. I don't go in blind. And I do my best to get him to tell the dirty secrets.

He told what he was, he told him he gave a lot. He didn't give it all. He's not an idiot. He wants to work in this industry again, and he doesn't know when he'll cross paths with the mighty Dean Blundell again. I know he didn't feel like lighting a match and throwing it on his career at the age of 40.

You know, that's his call. I was happy with the interview. I posted, I share it, and then the comments. So I was initially a little bit surprised because at the beginning of the commenting, it was very negative. And I actually, I have to admit, I thought it went well. I listened to it once after I actually do a tiny bit of editing, just a clip that beginning in the front and I it, and then I throw it online right away. And then I'm listening.

Basically, right after I upload it, I start listening because I listen to these to see, like, do they suck? How did it go? I actually thought it went very well. And then I'm getting this feedback that it was a softball interview. I didn't push hard enough to get these answers. He dodged some questions. Mike, you didn't put that journalism degree to use. You have one, right?

Forget that. No, I have the journalist instincts. Peter Mansbridge could have been interviewing Todd Shapiro. Barbara Walters could have been interviewing Todd Shapiro. At some point, he's talked to his lawyer. He's probably talked to his fiancée. He's probably talked to some friends and he's made this decision. I'm not going to tell this story about why I was fired from 102.1. I don't know what I was supposed to do. Here's a good question to ask, I think. Did you and Todd have a conversation

previous to the interview about questions, specific questions that you were going to ask? And did he have the opportunity to say don't ask me these questions nope uh we never did that beautiful and i asked him anything i wanted to i didn't hold back any questions that is that that that is beautiful for me that tells me that the honest the interview was honest the the interview was true and if he's not going to answer a question what are you going to do put him in a fucking headlock like you're going to lock the door and he was in that seat i watch the eggs like what the fuck i asked him a question what are you gonna do put him in a fucking headlock like you're gonna lock the door and he was in that seat i watched the eggs like what the fuck i asked him a question about like i think i asked him like are you are you friends with dean or something something like this he was squirming like literally squirming yeah he was so uncomfortable and you know this man who is i'm

like he's not a friend i wasn't at his wedding and i don't go you know for beers with him but i'm friendly with him he's been nice to me he He came on my show, this Toronto Mike show for an hour, and he's squirming away two feet beside me. How hard-ass am I supposed to be where I can still actually have this podcast and have guests that are no one? Why would Jeff Mayer come on the podcast where I bullied the shit out of Todd Shapiro

and made him cry? Exactly. Costed his livelihood. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Asking him the questions, knew that he he likely knew we were going to try and take the interview but at the end of the day the guy's got to fucking work he's been working with lawyers so they've probably said what you can and can't say um it's not like and they probably don't want to say anything right it's not like you're a lawyer why would you want him to say anything exactly it's not like this guy's going to go out guns a-blazin' when he's still at the early onset of his – not early onset, but he's relatively still got a ton of career left.

Like what the fuck? I was really surprised at some of those comments about – it was almost – I joked with you that I was calling the UN because your interview was a crime conspiracy. It just – it doesn't make any sense to me as to why people were so harsh. If anything, they could have said, oh, I wished he answered this or I wished he would have talked about this. But, you know, come on, guys. I hope Il Duce is listening because at some point after a bunch of negative comments in a row.

Oh, that was brilliant. Il Duce chimes in to basically say that I can't remember the guy's name. Dan. Dan was right. I can't remember. Dan was right. You didn't push right? I can't remember the guy's name. Dan was right. You didn't push hard enough. He wanted to tell more and you didn't push more or something like that. But, okay, so I'm in the

car driving my kids home from school and this comment's left, so I don't actually get this comment in real time. But I get a phone call from his alter ego, Anthony, who is a sweetheart. So Anthony calls me laughing and I'm like, what's up, man? And he's like, he's laughing. He goes, Booner, I just wanted you to know, I think the interview was great.

This is him on the phone with me. I'm on the phone, hands free. I thought the interview was great. You did a great job, Booner. I'm just busting your balls. I just left a comment, busting your balls, piling on. And he's laughing his ass off. He's laughing. Because the funniest thing in the world is that he's just left a comment agreeing with these idiots who thought it was a shitty interview and he actually thinks it was a great interview and he loved it and then i'm like so i'm asking him and i'm asking him what was i supposed to do like at that moment when he's hesitating to tell me some truth about him and dean am i supposed to reach over grab his balls in my hand and just squeeze those fucking balls. Speak, motherfucker. Speak.

Speak English. Don't you speak it? Am I supposed to squeeze those balls? So dumb. This controversy to me is fit for the pit. That's a Jonathan reference from Street Sense. You didn't get it, did you? No, I didn't.

You didn't watch Street Sense? No, not really. Oh, half my interview with Jonathan was with Street Sense. Oh, good. Good. Yeah, that's why. You might want to skip that one. I loved it.

I loved it. It was a brilliant interview, John on Smith Street. Oh, good. Good. Yeah, that's why I skipped that one. I loved it. I loved it. It was a brilliant interview, Mike. So this is to Il Duce and Dan. And I think this new crowd who don't know my blog and they'd never listened to an episode of Toronto Mike before, all they did was dive in for the Todd Shapiro episode. It is the most downloaded podcast of all 67 episodes we've done. Which caused this recent surge in iTunes.

It's done very very well but i don't i don't know if any of these guys will be back so it beat our first episode yeah yeah okay yeah well no the second most popular podcast we did was like episode 60 right after christmas yeah i think that's what we talked about pod todd as well even alan cross i think he's in third right now uh but i don't think he's caught that number 60 yet but number 67 is by far the number one podcast. Do you know what I think is a big component as to why people listen in addition to who's the guest or the co-host in this particular case is your little summary. People actually seem to read that because they comment.

Should I start lying? They comment about how you're factual or infactual about the actual summary of a podcast. I find that interesting. I got in trouble. That's what caused the controversy too. So I promoted lots. I find that interesting. And it's literally like a sentence. I got in trouble. That's what caused the controversy too. So I promoted lots. I'm a social media guy. I promote it on the blog. I promote it everywhere. I do a bunch of tweets. Not one tweet, many tweets.

One tweet, I think there's one tweet out there I tweeted that said it was a tell-all interview of Todd Shapiro. That was my mistake because everyone called me out on this being a tell-all because it's not a tell-all. It's a tell-almost-all. No one who has a tell-all interview tells all.

People are ridiculous on the internet. All right, so that's the Toddy Tickles controversy. Because I hate lots of people apparently too, remember? Yeah, especially if they wear a certain jacket. Which, by the way, Todd owns one. No, is it Jonathan owns one of those jackets, by the way? I hate him. What I noticed, though, in the comments, though,

we got lots of comments on episode 67 and as it progresses they get more and more positive it's almost like it's like the regulars came or something yeah people are rallying behind you as they notice that you're getting bombarded with this negative commentary i was shocked i told monica i'm like i didn't i don't know i can i've been criticized a million times on my blog but i thought when i did a good job on this free podcast I do for love, and I thought it was a pretty good podcast of Todd, I just didn't expect several people to tell me that it was too softball. You stink. I stink. You stink and you're boring.

All right, the next controversy in reverse chronological order involves Alan Cross. So let me set the stage for this one. Oh, I remember this one. All right. So I had scheduled Alan Cross for weeks. He was going to LA to speak at some lawsuit against Courtney Love, of all things. So he had to go to LA and he was going to come back. It was in my calendar for a certain time, lunchtime on a Thursday. And it was there for weeks. So I start promoting this thing. I'm talking to Alan Cross on Thursday.

Do you have any questions? I'm pretty heavily promoting that on Thursday, this date, I'm having Alan Cross in for a big interview. What do you want me to ask him? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. For the first time in... Somebody did the math on this, and it was like seven months.

So for the first time in seven months, the morning that Alan was coming into Toronto Mic Studios, Humble and Fred call Alan to talk to him about his trip to LA and his interview with Courtney Love and all this stuff. And I actually, on the podcast, because I knew this, because I listened to Humble and Fred, and I heard the interview of Alan just before he was going to pull into my driveway. And then I actually asked Alan, like, did you reach out to them to do it like you were doing press or did they call you and he said no they called me and you know he he took the call and he did it on the phone and then i started getting comments of people saying that basically

that was humble and fred scooping me they made that call the morning they knew i was having having alan and crosses to to somehow make sure that Alan cross fans had to listen to both or to somehow get this exclusive, or I don't know what the theory is. So that was the second controversy. Any thoughts on that? I'm pretty sure that if humble and Fred are concerned about the competition of a independent podcaster,

that they have some serious issues that they need to deal with. And I'm going to suspect that they don't have those particular issues. It's a coincidence. It's ridiculous that people would draw that conclusion in my estimation. Okay, I agree that there was no scoop intended. A, there was no scoop to get.

I wasn't there for a scoop. I was actually there to talk to him about Martin Streak and his days at the Edge. And I had questions about Edge Fests. And I wanted to know his favorite band. How long was the interview on Humble and Fred? Like 10 minutes, maybe. And it was about a specific topic?

Yeah, about a specific current topic. Right. It's like he went on to a radio show that has commercial breaks. That is a commercial show for all intensive purposes to promote a particular event or whatever. Whereas here he was like on a – not to continue to pile on to you, but he was here like on a shitty version of 60 Minutes, right? It was a longer – I'll take that. A long-form interview diving into different things within his career, people he used to work with, blah, blah, blah.

Very different format, very different type of thing. If anything, they did you a fucking favor by having that – Cross promoting the great Alan Cross? Absolutely. By having a guy, getting people interested in Alan Cross on the very same day that this podcast was also going to have a longer form interview with Alan Cross. And for the record, I never believed it. I think for a little while, Humble was afraid I believed these commenters. And I'm like, I literally wrote him.

I was skating at High Park and I texted him and said, stop listening to silly commenters. Weird. They don't kill you. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So there's no controversy there. But that was an interesting coincidence that a few commenters pointed out. And then somebody said, you could have had him any day.

That was the one day you shouldn't have called Alan Cross because that was the day he was coming on Toronto Mike's podcast. What the fuck? Is Alan Cross like he can only be on one station at one time? He's a big fucking deal. Like, give me a break. When like real celebrities like big time movie stars have movies coming out, they're on like multiple shows. If you ever listen to Howard Stern, you have a big celebrity on that show yes because the celebrity the celebrity is making the rounds the celebrity is like robin doolittle right now will be on everything because alan had something to promote no alan was called to alan was called he wasn't promoting shit he was just called just like i called him but humble and fred had something

to promote alan humble and fred had uh clearly had a somebody dropped out right they had some and they had a time slot empty alan cross is a pretty fucking good go-to you know what they should go to more he why is it they why are they going every seven months they have a professional relationship with him right um he's a go-to and you know why wouldn't you have him on the show more often when you have that type of situation where you maybe unfortunately had someone drop in? I'd have, if I were humble and Fred, I would have him in the studio once a month

to discuss what's new in music and stuff. I'd have a segment. He's very accessible. He'd be happy to do it. Yep. He's a cool guy. He's got a lot of stuff going on in this market. He's got some Indie 88 stuff going on.

A little bit of stuff going on. By the way, listen to that interview because we do talk a lot about Indie88 and why they're playing that Phil – what's that song, Home? The guy won American Idol. Home, it sounds like Mumford & Sons. You hear it a lot in Tim Hortons and stuff. Phil Phillips, I think his name is.

If I have that – Philip, Philip, I don't know. But they play that song quite a bit on Indie88. It's quite disappointing. I'm really surprised and shocked that people are upset with Indie88 that they now play commercials and have a shortened playlist i can't believe they added ads like what the fuck you guys are idiots the third controversy is unknown i think to this audience and will be particularly interesting and it could be known to them if they if they really closely read the comments and like open mics or whatever i guess that comment was left on the podcast episode comment uh entry yes but there's a feud that was erupting between humble howard all right now you're now you're no well let me set the table then you can clarify all right uh

as i saw it as a guy who was kind of an innocent in the middle there uh what happened was I did a podcast with Amanda. Amanda is Humble Howard's girlfriend. And she just had a boob job. And we were discussing it in great detail. And you... The following podcast. The following podcast. You came on and you said basically you found it boring. You put it on and then 15 minutes into it you turned it off because it was boring.

To clarify, you said you were working out and it wasn't the right vibe for work right i switched off the podcast did you ever go back to that podcast i no no absolutely not because it was boring no because i'm i go on finish this okay so i didn't know this but apparently humble does listen to every episode and humble listened to that episode and he was offended. He basically got his back up to defend his girlfriend who he thought you were basically trashing on the podcast. So he, publicly, he left a comment calling you out. Yep.

And privately, he sent me several emails about this, which were private and I will not read. But can you what's in the public domain here? What did he say to you in that comment? You remember? He basically said that I was not funny. I was a dick, essentially. I don't want to.

So far, he's two for two. Right. Not funny. I was a dick. She's a civilian. Pretty like that was funny i was a dick uh she's a civilian pretty like that was the impression i got was that she's not in the business of course neither are you or me right correct she's not in the business uh leave her out of it if you're going to go after anybody go after him uh i can't remember i don't have it here in front of me but

it was essentially calling me out for suggesting that i called her his girlfriend boring and in reality And in reality, I'm the boring person and I should keep my fucking mouth shut. Yeah, do you want to like use this opportunity? So what did you mean? You really mean that you couldn't work out to this podcast? You weren't saying that it was a shitty interview. Yeah, I think my explanation, because I did apologize on the blog after his comment, Because I did apologize on the blog after his comment because I felt that it was important for me to clarify that, that my – let me see here. If I can find the – I should have pulled it up here earlier. You know, my commentary wasn't directed towards Amanda in any way. It was meant more as part of the whole, you know, stick that I have with you, that your podcast is boring, that your blog sucks.

You know, we had a podcast that was called Your Blog Sucks. A failure of a podcast. It never ranked anywhere. It was never a failure. It was fun. But it's not on. And so it's not on anymore. never a failure uh it was fun but it's not on and and so it's not on anymore so uh the example i used here was that you could have interviewed the pope jesus and bono all on the same podcast and i

would have told you that it also sucked uh and i think the context of me working out at the time and really not putting myself in the right and not being fair to the podcast and amanda and mike for for to be honest you know being being on a bike, trying to, trying to go faster and longer. Um, it probably wasn't the best choice for me to actually be listening to the podcast for the first time at that particular moment. So I ended up turning off the podcast, putting on music and, uh, turned it into a shtick. And obviously the collateral there was that Amanda felt bad and I felt horrible about about that and i also felt bad that one of my radio heroes thought that i was an asshole um he can think i'm an asshole and he can think that i'm

you know unfunny and all that kind of stuff that's fine um but i didn't feel like he i didn't i didn't like the fact that he felt that i was an asshole because of that um like you want it to be a fair like if you make it fair exactly he can think i'm not funny and not want to listen and think that I'm a bad co-host and all that. That's fine. I don't want him to think that about me because I supposedly trashed his girlfriend. So I apologized. Um, and, um, as far as I'm concerned, the issue was dead after that. I did think that some of the comments were funny afterwards.

Um, Marco Saar especially had the greatest. It was just a one-liner what did he say so many balls busted it was it was fucking brilliant so you know i never heard back from from howard after or amanda for for from that apology i don't necessarily uh i i don't know if i expected it or not to be honest but uh i hope given that i don't know what they're thinking now, I hope that they see that I'm being honest and genuine about it. And if there are any hard feelings, I'd love to talk with them about it. Otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, the issue is dead. So hopefully it is with them too.

And hopefully they realize that it was a stick where obviously somebody was involved that shouldn't have been. Yeah, I think he just got defended because Amanda might have been, he was just worried Amanda would be insecure. Is that the right term? Would be worried that maybe she wasn't very good because Elvis said she's... Well, if I put her in a position where she felt uncomfortable

coming back on the podcast... I don't think I'm ever going to be able to get Amanda back on this podcast. Because of that, that would be that would make me feel really bad. You know, and that's sort of rule number one, right? Of radio is that you don't make fun of, you don't make fun of your advertisers and you don't trash the guests because you need. That's a silly rule, the trashing a guest rule.

You need those people to, to make the, to make the, the show continue. Now, certainly there's there's you know you know there are times where you could uh sort of trash a guest i guess in in a in in certain situations but this certainly wasn't one so look at this our little podcast had three controversies all boring no actually i don't think those are three extremely interesting you know i think other you know think mine was really just two comments. The other two were certainly had legs. They lasted a while.

And, you know, they put the podcast on the map, I think, in a little bit, more so even maybe than the actual guests themselves, which is interesting. Right? Yeah, maybe. Any kind of attention drawn to something like this is good awareness is the biggest battle we fight with these things getting people to make sure hey this exists and you gotta download it and listen and it's like there's a lot of stuff you gotta do to hear this so

it's like getting people to make that first step is is the toughest part i'm just happy to be back on the podcast i thought maybe i was gonna get fired there well you know what i have that's i have a decision now so now that i have those three toronto famous people in a row uh i do enjoy these because i can just relaxingly shoot the shit with my buddy i don't want to ever stop doing these but at some point i have to decide do i do i want to line up more guests i'm interested in like i have to do like jeff merrick's coming on and i'm very interested in that and that'll be like next week but i have some names I want to pursue. Like, do I actually now try to get Maestro Fresh West in here?

Wow. Because Maestro Fresh West is somebody I think is attainable. Like he's a, he's locally based Toronto guy. I didn't say Drake because my daughter wants me to get Drake. My daughter wants Drake. And I don't think I can get Drake. So I don't want to pursue Drake. But I want Maestro Fresh West.

And I think I can get him. I think, you know i think the the thing you got to consider is can you do this every single week because that takes a lot of work right it's a full that becomes a job for you to send me a fucking text message and say can you come to the podcast or when are we going to do the podcast next that doesn't take any effort right and there's little to no preparation for either one of us we sort of you know we riff a little bit about what we want to talk about, but there's not, you know, we, we, I think that's why the podcast, this works, this conversation works is because for a lot of times we're having the conversation for the first time. Um, but if you're going to do this every single week, then with, with guests and stuff, that's

a lot of work. That's a lot of work. You know, maybe a mix. I like, I mean, certainly I like to be on a podcast, but having a mix, you know, of certain guests, Liz loves it. Right. I mean, I think you could pretty much, you know, take a shit for the entire hour and liz would like the podcast that's a sensitive topic okay liz uh has been called out by cory and others for being like

a cheerleader of sorts and i don't see what's so bad podcast that's nothing wrong that would be like calling you a howard stern cheerleader that's right i love howard stern you love him fuck but at the same time i mean you, you know, no one's perfect. She's great. She gives feedback, right? And funny feedback. I like her comments. She's not afraid to, like, say that we did something right or wrong.

And she swears in her feedback. Yeah. She's great. Hey, remember I asked you what you thought of Jim Richards? Yeah. And you said you thought he was a douchebag? Fuck off. I did not say that.

No, he didn't say that, Jim. Because Jim will actually hear this. Here's the thing. I like Jim. One of my downfalls, and maybe it's because I don't have any journalism background and I never went to school, is I suck at setting the table. So I suck at off the top of these podcasts, I should give people an idea of what's coming up.

I've never told the people that we're going to call jim richards in a few minutes and have a quick chat with jim richards of 1010 talk today today like now i'm about to call him i'm gonna see if this works there's so many things that can go wrong here okay this is amazing i never i know i have these notes as you know but i totally forgot i took this note and it says here i'm recall jim richards at 416 does he know that he's called that we're calling yeah he gave me his number and everything i mean jim chatted about this he didn't want to come in okay so i want to jim in here i want to talk to jim i think he's a funny mofo yeah jim doesn't have a car and unlike jonathan torrens who didn't hesitate to jump in a 40 cab ride jim richards wants to do this on the phone i don't do phone things but i thought maybe

if we did it in the middle of one of our episodes, it'd be okay. Sure. Any questions for the guy? Yeah, I've got a couple of questions. Thanks for giving me the heads up on this one. I'm so sorry. Maybe just before I call,

because we're a little bit ahead of schedule. Can you give me an update on that cassette to MP3 transition project? Yeah, you desperately want to hear me yeah well it's been weeks it's been like four weeks i haven't i haven't done it i i still don't have it my my my stumbling block right now is that i don't have a tape deck okay oh you need tape because lynn gave you some i know exactly how to do it marco sar told help me out and as well as lynn um well someone out there has a tape deck i might have one my mom has one i have no tape deck um i'm pretty sure i have the cable that i need and that's really all i

downloaded audacity yep i use it too i use it to edit this thing cool so i've got everything i need except for the tape deck and i have the tapes um so yeah i mean i maybe one day when i do it we could play a couple clips yeah like that i I will. I'll play some clips. It's brutal. Well, you can't be worse than this. It'd be more stuff for Humble to make fun of me for. Yeah, now we know Humble listens. There goes that rumor.

Hi, Humble. Hi, Humble. Kisses. And one more thing I'm supposed to say right off the top is, and this is very serious to me, I have a, I've decided to participate in the Ride to Conquer Cancer, and it's a 220-kilometer bike ride with proceeds going to the Princess Margaret Cancer Center,

where I visited my dear friend Mike, just before, Mike Kick, just before Christmas. And for two reasons I'm doing this ride. One is for that very reason, I feel very helpless when a dear friend is battling stage four esophageal cancer. I feel like, I don't, I feel very helpless, but I feel I can do this to raise awareness

and funds for something to help in some indirect way. And it happens, this ride is taking place the month I turn the big 4-0. So I feel like I need a big, some kind of, I can't climb Mount Everest. I don't have the money or the time. I need something to symbolize this transition to my 40s. And I feel like a 220 kilometer bike ride like this over two days to Hamilton and back might be that thing. So I have ventured. They won't let me ride. I actually have an orientation tonight,

but they won't let me ride unless I raise at least $2,500. That's like this minimum to actually participate. And I'm still like 900 bucks away from that. I've been busting my hump getting pledges to get to this $2,500 mark. Normally I do a Terry Fox run and I'm happy when I hit 500. So this is like a whole different stratosphere. So if anyone listening can spare 20 bucks, 30 bucks, 50 bucks, whatever you can spare, there's a tax receipt at the end of this exercise. Just go to torontomike.com in the top left. There's a button like ride to conquer cancer.

Click that and then whip out your credit card. So you're at 1600 bucks now. That sounds about right. Approximately. Yeah. Right on. And when's your deadline? i see the deadline is not for a while the deadline is the day before the ride which is like june 6th but this is something that theoretically could be affecting your mental preparation well the thing is i'm a mental preparation yes because i'm worried and uh physical too like this is

actually i have a training schedule i'm supposed to keep and it's been tough to get out there cause it's been a shitty winter, but I'm going to, I think tomorrow I'll be able to start getting back out there, but I have to do like, uh, three times a week. I have to hit certain marks through February and then it goes up in March

and it goes up in April. But you know, I feel like, uh, physically I need to be ready and mentally, and I'd hate to do all that. And to be honest, if I'm, if I'm within like, within like X dollars, I'm going to pledge it to get up there. Like I'll take out my credit card and top it off.

I don't have 900 bucks for this. I'm hoping everyone will help me get closer. In my experience, if I could offer a little bit of advice about doing longer distances, not on the bike so much, but more running. It is more of a mental exercise i think than a physical one i mean the physical one is something that that you know they they in running anyway they say if you can run a kilometer you can actually run two kilometers the reason why you can't run that extra is because of your your mind so being mentally prepared is

really important and certainly and that's my weakness yeah a bit of a mental case well this would also be weighing on you i think it would almost be like a shadow to have that nine hundred dollars sort of being thank you someone needs to pledge 900 for my for yeah for my mental health so barack obama was not elected with large donations he was elected with large number of small donations so ten dollars twenty dollars thirty bucks um i can vouch for the fact that Mike is a caring guy when it comes to folks who are not doing well when it comes to this ridiculous disease.

And if you can help them out, please do. And you're a survivor. Are you going to pledge my ride? No. Why? I don't listen to the podcast. I wouldn't know how to actually get to actually do that. I do know Humble and Fred did say, because people are like, why haven't Humble and Fred pledged? Well, they did promise. What the fuck is with these people and their boners?

I think it's because they're, yeah, I don't know. But they're going to pledge $100. I'm going to come on the show and promote it there, and then they're going to do it on the air as a big, happy, feel-good moment. Well, you just stole their fucking thunder. You just Alan crossed them. That's called karma. You just Alan crossed them.

Hey, can I ask, since we didn't prep at all, what are you going to ask Jim? I've got a couple of questions. I want to ask Jim a question right off the bat that actually is, because it confused me for a while. I would occasionally get Jim Richards and Mike Richards confused. Really?

Yeah, because they were, they're both funny. Like they both have a comedic side to their talk and they both came out of 590, as I recall, like around the same time. Do you remember, what's your memory? Like I remember Jim Richards doing overnights and he was hilarious and he did like late night stuff that was really like irreverent and funny. Well, one of my questions that I want to ask him about is, is it sort of goes off of that is, is what's his favorite time of day to broadcast? Cause he has done all sorts of different things. I don't if you remember but he did a show with barb de julio for a while who i'm a big fan of and that was during okay she's available i could get her on

here i just didn't know i really like barb uh i've always liked her i think that she's that she's great um so i want to know what time of the day he likes to he finds his sort of style is best suited for if he had a perfect okay Okay. So let me ask my question. Then you come in with that one. Sure. And then I want to ask him about his experiences with Barb, but also with George, George Trombopoulos is a guy that he essentially,

you know, he, he introduced us to George. There's a mofo I need in here. George Trombopoulos. Yeah. That'd be, I got questions for George.

He's a CNN guy. I've heard, well, I don't know if that's still around, but I heard no one, I heard no one watched that show, but, uh but uh i did i've heard stories like about george that are like off the record fascinating stories i'll tell you i think he is a fascinating guy i really like george i think he's a great broadcaster and he's probably let me think here off the top of my head

probably the best canadian interviewer at the moment he gets his show his show him and gian gomeshi his i don't listen to him so i don't really know he gets big guests see i can't i can't get past the fact that he was moxie fruvis and i used to make fun of him while he was up on stage stuck in the 90s again um i really like george i think he's the best interviewer that we've got all right but we also really like jim let's do this uh let's see if the if i can get this audio to work. This is a wonderful moment for the Toronto Mic Podcast. You ready? Yeah.

No guarantees. This is going to be a Gary Delebate moment. Guaranteed. Wow. This is exciting. This is like real radio. This is a pre-recorded soundtrack, by the way. Oh, we set this up and watch him not answer.

You know, I did read on Twitter he was sick yesterday. We might have to do this next episode. Quite a build-up. And then that's why I don't promo anything. He's probably taking a shower. Did you tell him 9.15? I said between 9 and early morning. Right.

We need to leave a message. Hi, thanks for the call. Sorry I couldn't get you right now. Leave a message at the tone. To leave a callback number, press 5. Jim Richards, this is the Toronto Mic'd podcast. Jimmy! I'm here. That's Elvis.

We would love to have a little chat with you. We might try ringing you again later in this episode. If we miss you today, we'll set this up and do it next week or the week after. We've got lots of hard-hitting questions for you. Yeah, sure. Talk to you soon, Jimmy. Wow, that was exciting that was exciting at least we know his number is the right number yeah because he could have been he could have given me a fake it would it be amazing if you're like we're gonna call

jim richards now and then it goes to voice monitor your mom's number you know this is the thing i don't sorry yeah you know we're really gonna call jim sorry it could have been worse i was at a raptors game with my daughter uh actually speaking of my ride to conquer cancer i actually got these tickets from ford canada to take my friend mike kick mike kick is a super raptors fan and i got these amazing kick-ass seats to take him that was the premise upon which I got these tickets. My friends battled. I gave a sad story to Ford Canada.

My friends battling stage four esophageal cancer. He's a big Raptor fan. I'd love to take him to a game. Okay, here's two tickets against the Clippers on a Saturday. Great game. Nice. Yeah. He wasn't up to going, which is sad.

But I said to Ford, I felt bad. I'm like, I can't take my daughter, for example, when I got the tickets to take... It's a scam, right? That's the most asshole thing you could do, right? Right, because there's that cloud of suspicion. Oh, yeah, his sick friend can't go. How many times can I go to that well?

Oh, I got another friend of cancer who needs leave tickets for that playoff game. Yeah, exactly. You got to be careful how many times you use the C word. So I actually went back to Ford, and I told him the truth. This is what I wanted to do. yeah exactly you know you gotta be careful how many times you use the c word so uh i actually went back to ford and i told him the truth this is what i wanted to do the treatments have him feeling like a bag of shit he can't he doesn't feel strong enough to go take the tickets back and give them to whoever you want to and ford canada to their credit said no you take you know

you take somebody close to you. I'm sorry to hear about your friend. They were so awesome about it. Nice. Sweethearts. So I took my daughter to her second ever Raptor game, but it's been a while. I took her to see Steve Nash back when I thought it was our last chance to see the greatest Canadian ever. And that was like five years ago.

So he's still playing. But I took Michelle and in this game, which we actually lost, and it was a very exciting game, Terrence Ross scored 51 points. This is the second time in the history of the Toronto Raptors a player scored 51 points. Is this another controversy that we're talking about here? This is a mathematical oddity. I need to see the ticket stub from the first game. This is bullshit.

I haven't. I do have it. need to see the ticket stub from the first game i have it i have it yeah i do have it so i went with my friend mark kerry to see the uh raptors versus the suns in the very first nbc game the raptors ever participated in that was a saturday afternoon as well and vince carter scored 51 points so i actually did some rough math i needed help with this somebody my wife works with who's like a math guy to help me because it was tough but i wanted to know the odds on me seeing both raptor 51 point games considering the number of raptor games i've been to in my life so i i understand a guy who goes to like 30 games a year has a really good shot at catching both of these 51 games i have been to like 20 games in my life

20 right so 20 games in my life. Wow. Right. So 20 games in my life, two of them have had 51 point efforts by a Raptor. The only two times in the history of our franchise, which has played something like 1600 games or something. So I had him do this math for me. And ready for this? The odds of me seeing both Vince Carter's 51 point game and the Terrence Ross 51 point game 0.0045 percent which is astronomical

I don't really know what that means but it's a really sounds impressive it's like lottery winning numbers now like go play the lottery time so I just wanted to share that interesting mathematical oddity that I've been to both those games and i've only been to like 20 games in my life interesting sure i thought it was fascinating no not necessarily no this is the jim richards interview component you just took three minutes to explain it which makes it not so much interesting do you have thoughts on speaking of vince carter and his 51 points uh what do you think of vince carter uh in 2014 like tell me have you warmed up to the idea of vince or are you still mad at vince because i have thoughts on this but i want to hear what elvis thinks of vince carter today fuck vince is really how i can best uh describe my feelings

towards vince carter i think he's a douche i think he's a douche. I think he's an asshole. Uh, I think now he's sort of backpedaling because he has, uh, realizes that his career, um, was pretty shitty after he left Toronto. When you compare it against what he did here in Toronto, there's any hope of his number going up into any rafters. It would be here in Toronto. Um um and if there's any any any remote chance of him going into all the fame it would be as a toronto raptor so um you know he's he's basketball do that like you know in baseball it's a big deal like which cap you wear in the hall i'm not just behind that so you know baseball you you don't choose no you don't cooperstown chooses for that's why gary carter was pissed off right they chose an exposed hat. That's right. He wanted to go in as a Met.

Right. Where, I'm not sure what it is like in basketball. I would guess that baseball is probably the only one that. Baseball's the best when it comes to all-star stuff. I don't even know who's an all-star in anything else. I know a little bit about hockey. Hall of Famer, you mean. Hall of Famer.

Yeah, you're right. But baseball's got that nailed down. So I think Vince is trying to play nice. but baseball's got that nailed down. So I think Vince is, uh, Vince is trying to, you know, play nice.

Uh, he, maybe he very well is, is, um, you know, feels remorse or feels like he, he made the wrong move and that his mom shouldn't be a spokesperson.

Um, but, uh, you know, I'm a fan. I have the right to hold a grudge. I have the right to, uh,

think illogically or irrationally, which, uh, really fandom, you know, is all about being a fanatic. I'm with you. So fuck Vince. I've got, you know, he was great while he was here, but he left like a baby and I've got no time for him. I have similar sentiments. So I noticed recently there's this restoration effort to like restore

the reputation of Vince. And I noticed there was a big documentary on i think it was sports net that aired it like basically there's an effort to sort of like soften the fans in toronto they're feeling towards vince and even welcome potentially like him finishing his career here things like this are being uh floated and i just want to say he's even saying that he might come back well i've gone he'd be open to come back i've gone back to the archives of tron i wrote apparently i was obsessed with vince carter like this who wasn't i guess you're right who wasn't but i have written extensively about this through the period when he was like our guy half man half amazing and then his the bitter divorce if you will and then me just passionately rooting against him ever winning an nba championship it seems like i i'm okay with any team winning the damn nba championship as long as vince doesn't

end up with a freaking ring you know there's a lot of news a lot of journalists in the city that feel like um you know it's it's we're we're we're the fans are the ones to blame here because the fans are the ones who shouldn't be booing him you know what fuck you you're not going to the game and paying for a ticket mr or mrs journalist you're there to to write a fucking column don't tell me what i what i can and can't do in terms of booing right and that's a little bit of revisionist history anyways if you go back to that period sort of like there's a period where he essentially quits on the raptors you remember the win scene and pain on the sidelines so even his own teammates would roll would roll their eyes when he would like kind of clutch his leg like he was just shot or whatever and beyond that in his own words i believe he stopped giving his all i remember

there's a period where he stopped dunking do you remember this like he stopped he said he wasn't gonna dunk he stopped dunking he literally quit on this team because he wanted out of toronto right to go where to go to go to a place where he fucking did nothing this team had the opportunity now mind you management was you know had issues as well it's not necessarily vince fuck the franchise um but i think they made him a promise he'd have a say in who the new general manager which is also stupid and they didn't give him that say right that was the but we had you know we could have been an amazing team with three amazing components t-mac and t-mac and and uh

davis uh davis and who was the other guy oakley younger guy no no no it was a younger guy uh i can't remember now but it was a as another rookie guy and and it was just you know we had this opportunity and everybody just started to go all sucky baby and it was just you know it was it was it was shitty and and really he um you talk about stoudemire who you talking about no no no it was another it was tracy mcgrady and there was another guy um marcus canby oh yeah yeah yeah um mr rebound yeah i mean there i don't know we have he He had the ability to sort of transcend the sport in the city and be, you know, not just be a leader on the court with his showmanship and what he could do, but also be a leader off the court and really take this team. All they had to do, those three guys just had to sit down in a room and say, you know what? Fuck it.

We're going to do it here. We're going to do it in Toronto. And we're going to be the biggest fucking thing in this country. Because that's the thing. You go to New Yorkork you go to wherever you're sort of you know you're a big fish in a big pond they could have been the biggest fucking thing in this country um what else was going on right i mean the leafs were half decent the jays sucked you know it would have been an amazing opportunity and for the record i too do not forgive vince carter for quitting on this team.

I will, I will never forget that. And going back to our discussion about Wendell Clark. I mean, we talked about the fact that he wasn't the best player in the league, but fuck, he's a God in this city. Yeah.

Right. Why? Because he stayed here because he made this team, this city, you know, he was all heart baby. And Vince had that opportunity. He left it all on the ice.

Vince didn't leave it all on the court when he was here. No, he left it with his mom. We're going to try one more time. Let's try this. This is riveting live recording here. This is Jim Richards. See, maybe he didn't recognize the number and it spooked him. Maybe he's being stalked.

This is so ridiculous. I mean, I could edit this out. no one will know this happened the second time yeah first time should i edit this out i don't think so say something you'll don't edit it don't edit it all right leave this shit here why break our streak ah jim next time next time no messages next time this will be exciting maybe this will be like who is it who has the bit is it jimmy uh kimmel's got a bit where he has matt damon on the show all the time and never gets to him he always bumps matt damon yes what if we have a continuing bit every episode we try to get jim richards and we can't get him that would be so amazing oh sorry

jim we're out of time every episode at around the 50 minute mark okay let's call jim again no but the way this bit works is that okay we lined up jim for real this time and then he never fucking picks up his phone we have a number i will call i will hammer this number every week until he picks up oh that's so brilliant thanks jim next episode we record together, you and I, I have a story to tell. I'm going to tell the story of Rick Hodge. Oh, good. Okay. This is an interesting story.

I'm going to tell it from A to Z. What's he going to do? How much time? Do we have two minutes? Yeah. I just wanted to touch on something here before. I think one of the things that we really like about, or one of the things that we have in about, uh, or one of the things that we have in common and we really connected with when we first met a long time ago was our love

for radio and our love for broadcasters and the ability for us to sort of, you know, go back and forth with broadcasters that were both well-known and ones that were, were not, there are two guys that I really, really love right now. And I think are at the top of their game they are have been a duo for a long time but that being said i am a fan of their work when they're solo as well um one of these gentlemen does play by play for um now is rogers but it used to be for the score for uh university football and i really love his play play, but these two guys are on the fan right now. Um, Tim Sixero,

or sorry, Sid Sixero and Tim Metcalf. They, they are by far the only thing on radio right now that makes me want to listen to the radio. Cause I don't, as much as I'm a fan of the medium, I don't really listen because I don't like where how it how it sort of evolved especially sports talk radio it's really really generic it's really boring there are a couple of good guys like I love Greg

Brady I like Bob McCowan but for me right now we are in the moment where tim and sid are just peaking they are fantastic they make me laugh out loud in the car which you know you may be saying is not necessarily difficult for me i was gonna say it really is when i'm they are just so good they're so funny they are just the chemistry is i can't say enough about these two guys um they are by far i'm going fanboy here i know that but i love these two guys and i think that they're fantastic and i just wanted to get them on the podcast i just wanted to put it out there that i like for me right now these guys are the best thing in toronto radio and and they're just they're just magnificent at what they do i guess i should also lump their producer in there as well because the fucking sound effects and all the shit that they have going on.

Oh, they do that. It's fucking... What's that called? It's so brilliant. It is so... It's so brilliant. It means every time I listen, it's a new bit, and I'm laughing out loud.

It's fucking brilliant. I listen to so little terrestrial radio right now outside of CBC Radio 1 and Indie 88, but I will occasionally stumble on tim and sid and i actually agree with you i like their rapport i like their style i think that they're good just like stupid shit like tim went on vacation for two weeks so sid's like hey i'm sid six solo for the next two weeks that's genius it's genius it's just little shit like that just it i can i, do you want some sound effects like that? It really shows. They have all like a rap song written for them.

Yeah. And I have a rap song written for me. And that, you know what? The other funny thing is, is that, you know, Bob McCown is like this God at the fan,

right? And, and people poke fun at him a little bit, but he's, you know, he's sort of, you know, you don't touch,

you don't mess with Bob, right? You don't touch Bob. They fucking dig at this guy all the time. And then it's, and then they go on his show and, and Bob is making fun of them for the fucking like, you know,

happy hour that they got going on. They're like, what he's like, this is in a fucking radio show. The banter that these guys have is, is, is just brilliant. I can't get enough of,

of Tim and Sid. They're there. I wish I could listen more often. They're fantastic. I'm a, I'm a fan too. What do you think of Blair? I felt like that was a rant, but it was a positive rant.

You can rant positively. What do you think of Jeff Blair? You know, there's times where he's really, really good. When he's in his wheelhouse, he's good. Is that baseball? He knows his shit. He does. I like the fact that when he's not in his wheelhouse, he's not afraid sometimes to admit that he's not in his wheelhouse.

So we're in a world right now where because newspapers are not as influential as they once were, that we have a lot of columnists. We have a lot of guys from the newspaper world suddenly moving into broadcasting. Like Damien Cox. It's a different dynamic, right? And Brunt. It's different for Jeff to sort of sit down and write a column three or four times a week, I think. And I'm assuming he would admit this. Then sitting in front of a microphone for two, three, four hours a day and sort of riffing on all sorts of different subjects and interviewing on the fly.

So some do it really, really well. I think, you know, Stephen Brunt and Damien Cox are two of the better ones. But, you know, then again, you know, there are times where guys like Jeff Blair can really, really, you know, shine as well. They did, you know, fantastic in some sense. I listened, I was commuting when Jeff Blair started at the fan and he would fill in for Bob McCowan.

Like he would sub in. Can I, honestly, he was horrible. He was a horrible broadcaster. I used to like wince. Like he was just a terrible broadcaster. And then this man worked at it because if you tuned in six months later like he got I was so shocked when he got his own show because of how horrible he was filling in for Bob McCowan he was just a bad broadcaster and then he got

better like he improved and dramatically improved today he's one of the finest broadcasters in this city like he's great yeah you know who else is like that and and I have a big I'm a big fan of this guy as well but back in back in the day as well like i liked him when and and i mean no disrespect to this guy because i i do like him and i think he's really funny um jim richards he was he was maybe not the greatest broadcaster when he first started but who really is you know and this is coming from a guy who's not a great broadcaster himself self-admittedly but jim fucking lang i love this but jim lang oh yeah we can't talk about where he is i love this man he's uh he's at rosie station uh i love this guy he's funny he's great on twitter uh he knows his shit especially when it comes to the nfl and the nhl um and he's really evolved over the last you

know decade and i think he's one of the the better broadcasters that we have out there too. I like him a lot. Just before, I know Lynn listens and some people like Lynn's the one who suggested, that's like Rosie's aunt, by the way, who suggested how you get your. Yes, that's right. Okay. So I need to clarify the fact Rosie is involved with this experiment in Markham has absolutely nothing to do with the reason why I'm completely boycotting and denying

its existence. I was on board with denying the existence of this station and refusing to talk about it in any regard well before Rosie was associated with the project because of a completely separate matter. I just want to point, I don't want people to think like I, Rosie is a dear friend and I can't wait to have her back on. And it's all a hundred percent good with Rosie and I, she's just busy. We love Rosie. So she's there, which is kind of tears my heart a bit. Cause I would like to promote it a lot for her, except, uh, she knows she's on board

with what's going on. And that's all I'm going to say on that. Maybe you could get Jim Lang on as well. Jimmy Lang. Uh, yeah. I fucking love Jim Lang. He's so, he's, he's funny. He's really funny

I like him he's good he used to he used to like anchor whatever sports net used to call them call their newscasts I don't know what it's called now it's called connected but before connected I think he posted to me possibly maybe do you want me to try Jim Lang

I was going to jokingly call Jim Richards again but no we got to save it for next week. Any final thoughts before I close this sucker down? Tim and Sid, I love you guys. Big, I've got to be- They listen, you know. I have a huge man crush on both of you. I love you.

That's beautiful. Just in time for Valentine's Day. I love you, Tim and Sid. I'm going to load those up. Do you know it's Valentine's Day on Friday? Happy Valentine's Day, Mike. Are you watching the Olympics? I am.

We forgot to talk about the biggest event on the planet taking place this week. Go Canada, go. Go Canada, go. Especially in hockey. Go ladies. Especially in hockey. Yeah, the ladies are fun to watch, but they play the States right now, I think. Yes.

Let's get on that. And that brings us to the States right now, I think. Yes. Let's get on that. And that brings us to the end of our 68th show. You can follow me on Twitter at TorontoMike, and Elvis at OshawaElvis. See you all

next week. See ya. I want to take a streetcar downtown