I enjoyed listening to Mark Towhey yesterday afternoon enough to tune in again later today, Christmas Eve afternoon, although one topic he did about the Donald being a bully gave me a bad case of PTSD. President Trump Stress Disorder.

P.S. pretty shabby of 1010 not to take a moment and record two "you're listening to the Deb Hutton/Jim Richards show with special guest host Mark Towhey" intros, surely someone could have voiced them.

This could have been a fun, interesting profile of someone who's been a public person for decades. But RA nailed it, it's a puff piece.

A badly edited puff piece. There's a missing word in one sentence. And the whole thing is so generic that perhaps AI was used to write the copy around the quotes. It almost feels like a promo for Moore Park businesses.

Ben's honesty about the learning curve he's going through and the differences between working in tv and radio make the article worth reading. Thanks for sharing this RA!

https://x.com/TELUS/status/1865126564410933570?t=S_AJwWcT6Wc994c8PZgX1A&s=19

I'm seeing more and more of these ads and with different variations which means Telus is spending a fair chunk of change, pun intended.

Odd timing for a new major ad campaign that's not focused on the holiday season?

Can't wait to see what "Suits L.A." is like and if they can keep what worked so well on the original show while establishing the fresh Los Angeles cast, law firm and story line. They couldn't manage to do it with their cancelled after the first season Suits spinoff "Pearson" but perhaps they can succeed this time.

The trailer looks a heck of a lot like the New York (Toronto) show with actors strongly resembling Rachel Zane and Harvey Specter.

I was an actor who'd had a year of a seriously good theatre school only to quit once I realized I wasn't cut out to wait tables and "starve for my art."

I'd always loved music and records having grown up listening to CKGM and CHOM when we lived in Beaconsfield Que. so I found a full-time job in a record store.

Every week someone from CHUM called the store and we'd talk about what singles were selling well, selling out, which ones were starting to slow down and the songs and bands kids were asking about.

After a few months of these chats, David Wolf called me and invited to the CHUM station to tape an audition to be the midnight on-air personality on CHUM AM. I went in, mimicked the jocks I'd listened to all my life and got the job. David was surprised and thrilled I'd hit the post on the Toto song. I just remember thinking why on earth would I talk over the vocals.

A few nights later I walking into the booth with the guy who'd been doing evenings. Getting the Reader's Digest version of how to run the board, how to rip and read the news, turn the mic on etc was a weird out of body experience.

He left me alone in the big deserted building at 11:56 pm and I remember pushing many many buttons, following the computer printout and praying until ten after midnight when I turned on the mic, announced that that had been Lionel Richie "Dancing On The Ceiling" gave my name, and said and here's Eddie Grant and Electric Avenue on CHUM.

It was a buzzy feeling being live on-air, but nothing like being on stage in front of a live audience. I was an actor acting like a disc jockey.

I lasted about a month listening to music I loathed with the power of a thousand suns until I couldn't take it anymore, thanked David for the opportunity and resigned.

It wasn't until the next gig came along a few months later and I became the midnight jock at an FM rock station that I felt like I'd found my home, cueing up records, doing mixes from one song into the next, show prep, all the exact

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video/c3037778-shoebox-project-helps-women-in-need

Years ago, Jessica Mulroney and her 3 sisters-in-law created a terrific charity called The Shoebox Project, providing Christmas gifts for women experiencing homelessness.

It started as a local endeavor in Toronto and has grown to a huge national movement and I think there are even Shoebox Project teams south of the border.

Ms. Mulroney stepped down from the charity in 2020. I have no idea if she's still involved quietly behind the scenes.

I watched the above CTV feature promoting the Shoebox Project and it felt like the two women from the charity deliberately chose not to mention the Mulroney family as the people responsible for creating the charity and being the driving force behind it's continuing sucess. And the interviewer didn't mention the family either. Which felt like sloppy reporting and/or a deliberate snub.

Is it possible the timing of Ben's conversation is, in part, related to the media coverage of the Shoebox Project charity and the continuing aftereffects of the 2020 social media kangaroo court?

https://youtu.be/qxJp_VQ5VUk?si=FIl9ordwgXqI-nj-

Above is the trailer of the movie they made in the 80's of Stephen King's The Dead Zone, a story about a man who sees via his terrifying supernatural powers that a popular U.S. Presidential candidate is not a good guy to put it mildly and if he wins the election will bring great evil into America. He decides he must assassinate the candidate to save the world.

The movie of the book was pretty well done and the special effects were the old school kind before the flatness of CGI was overused.

There's a terrific cast including Christopher Walken as the hero, Martin Sheen as the evil Presidential candidate and Herbert Lom (which can be tricky if you remember his hilarious Pink Panther character in the middle of a scene).

When Trump was first elected, I immediately thought of The Dead Zone and how prescient Stephen King had been in a bookish sort of way...

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a reboot in the future for obvious reasons.

Jeff Marek sitting in for the vacationing John Oakley and giving listeners a hockey centric show probably wouldn't be possible but man I'd love to hear him on the radio again.

The whole CP24 brand was vibrant, off the cuff, we're right there on the ground covering the stories as they happen in the heart of our city.

The CP24 team is going to have to be inventive and determined if they want to keep their street cred.

I always thought it was pretty clever of Mike Stafford to use the word "shite" on his show because I think "shit" was either banned and/or considered inappropriate.

Nothing beats the excellent and hilarious dubbing of Samuel L. Jackson's profanity on the movie Snakes On A Plane.

When we were kids growing up in Quebec we absolutely embraced learning certain parts of the French language, to be more specific, swearing in French, it's incredibly satisfying.

It would expedite matters if the CRTC had the smarts to simply read the customer complaints on the Rogers, Chatr, Bell etc social media platforms regarding their absolute lack of service and support.

Very few dissatisfied customers ever bother to take the time to register a complaint. The CRTC has had years to address the issues customers are currently facing and that have been spoken about on the big yellow board. The CRTC could make useful changes with the information they already have. Is this just a PR exercise?

Thanks for posting this and the link RA, it would be great if enough folks on social media find out about this to create a bit of a buzz, via CBC maybe? and take advantage of the opportunity.

What are the chances this CRTC initiative gets mentioned on 1010, CTV News etc. To use an old hockey saying: The chances are slim to none and Slim just left town. Although I'd love to be proved wrong.

I'd love to hear a fresh Toronto Mike episode with Mike Stafford. I still miss having the Stafford show on the radio and wish Mike and his family all the best.

Shorty Wave wrote:

Thanks betaylored, unfortunately the video isn’t available in “your country”. Too bad, I PVR’d this episode and my Bell box died, so I lost all my recordings. Still haven’t watched it!

It's a mystery why I was able to see the video because I don't have a VPN and double and triple checked that the show was playing all the way through before and after I did the post just to make sure this wouldn't happen. Guess someone who is responsible for blocking the feed to Canada fixed the error that allowed me to watch the show.

I'm disappointed because I was hoping one of the discerning brainy folks on here could figure out why the show just misses and share their thoughts...

Deb Hutton mentioned today that she's going to Taylor's concert tonight with her daughters. And she made a point of saying she paid for the tickets. I guess someone she knows has a box at the venue so we'll all be getting a first hand review of the experience tomorrow afternoon.

I need to hunt down the story they teased on the 1010/CTV crossover chat on the afternoon drive show about the couple who are getting a divorce and are fighting about what to do with their two tickets for an upcoming TS concert. The judge gave them three choices and I'm curious about the outcome.

Imagine how much media coverage we'd be inundated with if, er, when! the Toronto Maple Leafs make it to the Stanley Cup finals!

I'm looking forward to the 2024 update of the Band Aid classic.

https://youtu.be/aMqOtlVwQYM?si=__F7uIv_PPGZxoXk

The attached YouTube video is brand new holiday music. "Merry Christmas, Please Don't Call" is the latest tune from Jack Antonoff and Bleachers and after reading Shorty Wave's above observation about the lack of new original Christmas songs I was curious to hear what Jack (Taylor Swift's musical partner) and his band have come up with.

After listening to the whole thing once I decided to share the song here and ask, "do you hear what I hear?"

Thumbs up or thumbs down?