Freddie P's Blog

Hey everybody, it's a few days over due but I thought I'd give you an update on the Peter Griffin event on Thursday night.

It was great. Lots of people showed up at the Charlotte Room to pay tribute to one of Toronto's most beloved broadcasters.

We laughed we joked and we shed some tears. We took turns telling "Pete stories" and there were some dandies.

It was great to see some other Toronto broadcasting notables show up, and indication of how respected Pete was.

Roger Ashby was there, so were Rick Hodge, Gene Valaitis, Brian Master, Dougie Thompson and of course, Geets Romo.

Pete Griffin will never be forgotten. That would be impossible.

Category: Friends | Radio

Category: Friends | Radio

Everyone is welcome to gather at the Charlotte Room on Thursday night to celebrate the life of Peter Griffin who passed away last month.

A whack of people who used to work with arguably Toronto's best ever morning man will be there, but it's also open to those who loved to listen to Pete and Geets.

Come on down, reminisce and raise a glass to a great guy.

Thursday night, seven o'clock, The Charlotte Room, 19 Charlotte St. Toronto.

Category: Friends | Radio

It's been a week to reminisce on CanadianThinker this week, but it's not all sad. Losing Pete Griffin is a big fat bummer, but on the flip side there's a happy story.

Hell has frozen over. Mike Stafford is getting married.

I'll be honest, I never thought it would happen, but you know what they say, better late than never.

Within the last three months, Mike has met and proposed to a wonderful woman and they plan to get married next spring. I haven't met Mike's fiancé but I look forward to it. She lives just north of me in the Caledon Hills and I'm hoping that one day while bouncing back and forth between there and Mike's downtown condo, they stop in.

I've know Stafford for over 30 years now, and although we only worked together in the same building for a grand total of 10 years, we've never lost touch and we continue to have a unique relationship.

I don't think I'm stepping over the line or talking out of bounds by saying that in some respects I've been a big brother to Mike. I gave him advice and guidance, while he reciprocated with profound humour and irreverence.

In the early years I witnessed him plow through girlfriends like he really believed there was no tomorrow.

The girls liked Mike. He was young, talented, somewhat famous and good looking.

I would council Mike through some of these relationships, often recommending that the newsroom of CFNY was not the best place for late night intimacy... especially on my desk.

Mike seemed to like women, lots of them, but he never seemed to love one. He was quite particular and I imagine that's why he's remained a bachelor all these years.

Mike came to my wedding, he was my first guy friend to learn that my wife Delyse was pregnant. He was at the hospital the day Melanie was born and he became a very close friend of my family, including my parents who welcomed him into their Milton home on many occasions.

He has played a significant part in my life and that's why I feel so good for him today.

When I think of all the joy my family has brought to me, I feel for those middle-aged people who never did the family thing. I often thought about Mike in this light. How can you be 50 years old and not have someone to come home to or kids to worry about?

Well that's all about to change for Mike next spring. He's going to be a husband and a step-dad to two young boys.

I t took awhile, but after all these years he's finally going to feel it and I'm sure he'll be great at it.

Holy fuckin' cow. Mike Stafford is getting hitched!

Category: Friends

Mike paid a wonderful tribute to Pete on his am640 talk show this morning.

Category: Friends | Radio

Category: Friends | Radio

Back in 2008, I did this interview with Peter Griffin from his home in Ottawa.

Peter Griffin is considered a pioneer of Toronto radio. He was the first morning man at CHUM-FM when it became rock, and it was Peter who first put David Haydu on the air in the mid 70's to create the Pete and Geets Show, which was the first FM morning show of its kind in Canada and set the tone for the rest of us.

Pete and Geets came to CFNY in 1980 and the show ended in 1987.

Category: Friends | Interviews | Radio

I've been regretting this day. I just got a call from Kevin O'Leary who got the call from Geets Romo, the great Peter Griffin has passed away.

I have to put the word great before his name because that's exactly how I feel about Peter Griffin, who through the 70's and 80's provided Toronto with some great morning radio.

I had the pleasure and good fortune of working on the Pete Geets Show from 1980-87 at CFNY.

They had made the move from CHUM-FM and put CFNY on the map. It just so happened that I had been hired to do sports on the Spirit the year before so it was the ultimate case of being in the right place at the right time.

And it was a great time.

I did sports, Mike Stafford did news and we worked with two pioneers who were the first real comedic FM morning men in Canada, if not North America.

Pete and Geets had a unique style that was brilliant. For the times, these guys really pushed the envelope but did it with class and a whole lot of clever. No poo poo, pee pee or naked chicks.

Howard Stern gets so much credit for his act, but believe me, long before there was Howard Stern, there was Pete and Geets revolutionizing morning radio and they did it when the rules were a lot tougher.

Pete Griffin's infectious laugh and irreverent sense of humour is something I'll never forget. He was the ultimate set-up man and his chemistry with Geets was wonderful.

Pete was quite the fella, he came to a new rock / alternative station when he was 50 but his brain was a lot younger than that. He fit right in and quickly became one of the guys, hangin' out with all of us 20-somethings.

He played on the station ball team, went on all the road trips and never missed a party. He was a very funny guy.

Over the next few days, I'll write more about Peter Griffin because I can honestly say I loved the man. I'm not in the best frame of mind right now because this news comes to me as a king sized bummer.

However, I can't help but smile when I think of something he used to say quite often when something pissed him off.

"Fuck it, soon we'll all be dead."

RIP my friend.

A couple of years ago, Mike Stafford wrote this about Peter Griffin on Canadian Thinker.

"Nobody has been able to make me laugh harder than this man in my radio career. He was the straight man of the duo but, with all due respect to Geets Romo, he was why everything about the two worked.

Stafford.

Category: Friends | Radio

Since enjoying the state of Texas last week, I've had some catchin' up to do, and that includes spending some time on this blog.

As for the trip, here it is in a nutshell. Dallas, OK. It's not a people city. Very few live downtown so on the weekends it's a ghost town.

I loved doing the Kennedy stuff, including a tour of the Texas School Book Depository. It's chilling to stand on the grassy knoll and see the "X's" on the road that mark where the fateful shots were fired.

We also had some fun with the whole depository thing. I often get constipated on vacations and have to resort to suppositories, so it was fuckin' side splitting hilarious to mix it up. Imagine me trying to ram a depository up my ass while walking through a suppository.

Anyway.....

Austin, Texas is a great little town. Sixth St. is lined with tons of cool bars and restaurants and there are lots of live music venues. There's also a natural phenomenon with bats, millions of bats.

The way they built the Congress St. Bridge with long crevices underneath and the perfect humidity for bats created a haven for millions and millions. And every night, at a precise point at dusk, they come out to go insect hunting.

Here's a video.

San Antonio is another great city. The River Walk and the Alamo have made this a beautiful and interesting city. Same thing as Austin, lots of cool restaurants and bars.

From San Antonio, we headed south for the coast at Corpus Christi. This industry town isn't the greatest place on earth, but we found this great restaurant on the beach called Pier 99. Great snapper.

Corpus Christi is also the home of the USS Lexington, a World War II aircraft carrier that has been retired as a tourist attraction. Even though it cost 26 bucks for me and my sweet to board the bastard, it was still worth it. Talk about huge. It's crazy. True man true.

Saturday afternoon we drove to Houston, stayed near the airport and flew home Sunday.

And just so you know, contrary to popular belief, while in Texas we saw very few guys in cowboys hats, no gun racks and heard very little country music.

But it was a great trip. We enjoyed every minute with our good friends and easy travel partners Darren and Lori.

Darren often lets go with uncontrollable outbursts in public places, but unlike his wife, I'm not embarrassed. I don't want to crawl under a rock. I laugh.

Category: Friends | Fun Stuff

Yes its true, my friend and former partner Humble Howard has been "let-go" from his morning show duties at Boom 97.3.

I don't like to say "fired" because that's such a nasty word when you're talking about someone you care about. "Fired" is for hockey coaches, slimy businessmen and dog fuckers.

When it comes to a hard working guy who put a lot into his show and thought he was on the right track to where the station wanted to be, you say "let go."

Only Howard can provide the details as to what happened and why. Maybe he can do another guest column about being "let go", like he did the last time it happened.

It's a whacky world.

It seems like only yesterday that the Humble and Fred Show was hummin' along in Toronto, we were having a lot of fun and we thought it would never end.

Then you say yes when you should have said no and the fickle finger of fate rams you right up the ass.

Howard will be fine. He ain't dumb you know.

Category: Friends | Radio