On July 7th, 2025, Toronto Mike'd welcomed its 1000th unique guest. There have been 100 episodes recorded since that date, so we're at well over 1000 people who have been my guest. I call these people FOTMs: Friends of Toronto Mike.
For several years I joked that all FOTMs would live forever, because we didn't lose a single one. Sadly, those days are long over, and in 2025 alone we said goodbye to four FOTMs.
John Donabie
John Donabie was a radio legend and an absolute sweetheart. He visited me in 2018 to talk about working at CKFH, CHUM-FM, Q107, CJCL, CFGM, CFRB, CKFM, CKEY, CISS-FM, Jazz-FM and CIUT. We also discussed his interviews with John Lennon, attending The Last Waltz and so much more.
Marc Nathan
Marc Nathan was a music industry veteran who helped discover Kon Kan and Meryn Cadell, and he introduced the Barenaked Ladies to Seymour Stein at Sire. And that's just his Cancon contributions. We chatted in December 2023.
Juliette Powell
Juliette Powell passed away suddenly as a result of acute bacterial meningitis. She won the 1989 Miss Canada Pageant where she became the first Black Canadian to hold the title. She went on to become a VJ at MusiquePlus and then MuchMusic, eventually hosting Electric Circus and French Kiss. All the while she was studying economics at U of T.
She would end up living in New York, founding her own media and consulting company, advising the United Nations, World Economic Forum, and the World Bank, teaching, writing and inspiring.
Here's our chat from October 31, 2023.
Nick "Promo Man" Panaseiko
Legendary Canadian concert promoter Nick Panaseiko a.k.a. Promo Man has passed away. Thanks to Bob Klanac, I was lucky enough to chat with him on Toronto Mike'd for over an hour. We chatted about him working with Freddie Mercury, Johnny Cash, Keith Richards, KISS, RUSH, Bill Cosby, Liberace, Keith Moon, and others.
Here's our chat from July 2022.
