John Donabie was a radio legend and an absolute sweetheart. He visited me a few years ago 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.
If you listen to Toast episodes of Toronto Mike'd, you already know that Bob Willette fell victim to the Corus cuts and lost his job as program director of their Kingston cluster of stations. Since then, Bob realized he wanted to be on the air, and not in management. But
I'm hearing about significant changes at Corus-owned 640 Toronto. Here's what I've learned. Kelly Cutrara is gone. This is particularly sad news for me becuase I consider Kelly a friend. I got to know Kelly when she was a part of Humble and Fred's podcast about a decade ago, long
In this 1565th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with David Marsden about losing his brother James Baby Scott, other CFNY personalities who have put on their wings, discovering Chris Sheppard, hanging with John Lennon, co-founding NYtheSpirit.com and what's wrong with radio in 2024. This episode is exactly 1:
In this 1561st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with radio veteran Jeff Spindel about his career in radio, why it came to an end at Stingray / Boom 97.3, and what's next for him. This episode is exactly 1:25:17. You can listen to this episode in a
In this 1551st episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Roger Lajoie about his 4073 shifts on The Fan 590's airwaves. We also talk Jays, Leafs, CFL, tennis and recent Sportsnet departures. This episode is exactly 1:39:30. You can listen to this episode in a variety of ways:
FOTM Gill Deacon just announced on Here and Now that she's leaving her role as host of the popular Toronto afternoon drive show on CBC Radio One. Gill has been public about her recent battle with Long Covid following battles with cancer. I hosted Here and Now for just over
In February 2022, FLOW 93.5 was replaced with 93.5 TODAY Radio. This was pretty significant, as FLOW launched 21 years prior with a promise to play "Roots, Rock and Reggae" before eventually morphing into a rhythmic top 40 station. TODAY was a format that worked out west and
I'm not going to pretend I knew a thing about 900 CHML in Hamilton until minutes ago, but I do think it's pretty shitty a 96-year-old radio station is no more because Corus has decided to shut it down. To be honest, the only Hamilton media I was ever aware
In this 1513th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with radio veteran Jeff Chalmers about his years at CFTR, Q107, CBC, The Hog, Boom and more. Will Jeff corroborate John Gallagher's story about Labatt paying the Q107 morning show team 20k to not say Molson for one year? This episode
FOTM Jamar McNeil is leaving the CHUM morning show to join FOTM Josie Dye in the afternoon. Jamar made the announcement this morning on 104.5. When Jamar arrived in Toronto back in 2018, he dropped by to tell us a little more about himself. He returned to Toronto Mike'd
In this 1484th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Danny Kingsbury about his career in radio with a particular focus on his time as PD of CFNY, Y95, Q107 and 640. Find out the true Humble and Fred origin story, what really went down when Rogers bought CISS, and
In this 1472nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Scot Turner about his recent retirement, the upcoming CFNY documentary, cycling, podcasting, and the passing of his mom and his former colleague at CFNY Jim Reid (JR). This episode is exactly 2:09:27. You can listen to this episode
In this 1430th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is joined by Dan Shulman, Allan Davis, Nelson Millman, Scott Metcalfe and Tim Haffey as they discuss CJCL 1430 going all-sports in 1992. This episode is exactly 1:45:22. You can listen to this episode in a variety of ways: Subscribe
In this 1429th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Jon Pole about Bell's deep cuts to their radio empire, selling 45 stations in smarller markets, including four to Jon's My Broadcasting Corporation. Is radio still a viable business? This episode is exactly 54:22. You can listen to this
Yesterday I wrote about the massive cuts BCE made, affecting 4800 employees across the country. Many of these people work for the 45 radio stations Bell sold, but there are also many behind-the-scenes and on-air people from television and radio stations Bell has not yet sold. Two people you'd hear
There was a time 97-7 HTZ FM out of St. Catharines was one of my stations. On the FM band, I'd toggle between five stations. If memory serves me correctly, and we're going back a ways here, it was 102.1, 107.1, 97.7, 94.9 and 107.9.
Rob Valentine, whose real name was Roberto De Cicco, and was sometimes known as Guy Valentine the “Guy in the Sky," was best known for doing airborne traffic reports for 1050 CHUM, Mix 99.9 and 680 CFTR.
I've been blogging for a long, long time. Well over 20 years at this point. And yes, many of my blog entries have been about Toronto radio. When I started Toronto Mike'd, my little podcast that could, radio personalities were some of my favourite guests. I loved sitting down with
In this 1383rd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Matt Hart a.k.a. The Russian Futurists about his life of music, his time as an Indie88 day oner, working on the morning show there for almost a decade, and his current work at CBC and Today Radio. This
Some things take time... preparing a feast, writing your thesis, learning a new language... and Daryn Jones leaving KiSS 92.5 and becoming the new morning show host at Virgin 99.9. Way back in May, Virgin 99.9 parted ways with Adam Wylde and and Jax Irwin. I wrote
FOTM Darryl Henry's last show on CHFI was this morning. Darryl had been there since 2010. This page on CHFI.com has been deletedDarryl Henry visited me for a thorough discussion about his years on the radio at HTZ-FM, EZ-Rock and CHFI. You can hear that episode here. Darryl Henry:
Throughout my life, one constant has been the National Research Council Time Signal on CBC Radio at 1pm. The National Research Council official time signal. The beginning of the long dash indicates exactly one o'clock, Eastern (Standard/Daylight Saving) Time.Now that radio is served up via satellite and the
I have a lot of time for Josie Dye. I enjoyed her on 102.1 the Edge, had a great conversation with her on Toronto Mike'd, and have watched her anchor a morning show on Indie88 since 2017. Indie88 was lucky to have her, and now they're actively searching for
The morning show of Alish Forfar and Justin Cuthbert is no longer. I guess they gave them a year, hardly enough time to build an audience, but patience seems as elusive as ever in 2023 terrestrial radio. Alsih Forfar and Justin Cuthbert have been moved from mornings to Leafs pregameAlish
