Freddie P's Blog

As I often do I was listening to the Jim Richard's Show on CFRB last night and he raised a very interesting question at one point.

If your dog was abducted, how much would you pay to have it returned?

It's a great question and similar to a conversation I was having over the weekend with a few people about veterinarian bills. At what point does the bill reach a total that you decide to end your dog's life?

My beloved dog Billie is will be twelve years old in December, so if she needed major surgery to extend her life by a year or two, how much would I spend before it no longer made sense.

I guess it all depends on how much disposable income you have but that aside, there is a point where it's not only wasteful to spend the money, it might not be fair to the dog.

And the abduction question is wild. At least if your dog is ill or crippled, you make the decision to have it put down or not spend the money on surgery or medicine.

If your dog was abducted and held for ransom, regardless of its age, not knowing where it was, or how it might meet its end would drive you nuts.

I can honestly see emotion allowing you to cough up ridiculous amounts of money.

Category: Radio

Today's a huge day for me.

After almost two years away from radio I'll be sitting in my old chair at One Dundas Street co-hosting Leafs Lunch with Jeff Marek on am 640.

Now that the Stanley Cup playoffs are over, Bill Watters is on his summer schedule which means he only works Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Late last week Marek and Leafs Lunch producer Jeff Domet were gracious enough to invite me to fill in for Bill and thanks to some great co-operation from some fantastic people, it's going to happen today at noon.

If you read this blog often enough you know that I'm a big fan of Leafs Lunch so not only is today a big thrill for me, it's also a huge honour - and I can only hope the listeners will accept me in the absence of Uncle Willis

If you get the chance tune in at noon today and call in if you want. If that's not possible then you can listen to a replay tonight at seven.

Leafs Lunch with Jeff Marek - am 640 Toronto radio. Noon and seven. You should always listen.

Category: Radio

Earlier in the week I had this posting about my sweet and lovely Sandra Plagakis.

Turns out her "pit hair" bit turned out to be quite the radio extravaganza in Ottawa.

She took body hair and turned it into one of those neat radio bits where people feel compelled to come back every day to see what's going on.

This morning I got this update from one of radios great people.

Freddie,

Sandra

Category: Radio

Hi sexy,

Love ya.
Sandra P

Category: Radio

One of the highlights of doing the Humble and Fred Show through the 1990's was working with Sandra Plagakis.

Funny, informative, talented and especially sweet. When we made the move to MOJO, leaving Sandra behind was one of the hardest parts.

Eventually she left the Dean Blundell Show and went to Ottawa where she's closer to her husband's family and part of a successful morning show on Kiss 105.3

Sandra's also a good sport and this press release proves it.

"Started as a way to show support for the Ottawa Senators' run for the Stanley Cup, an Ottawa radio morning show co-host now sees her so-called ``playoff pits'' as an eye-opening social experiment.
Sandra Plagakis has been growing her armpit hair in support of the team, and says she'll only get rid of it when the Sens win the Cup, or are out. That should be tonight. She says men have their playoff beards so why not?"

She's a beaut. There aren't many women who'd have the "balls' to do something like this.

Category: Radio | Sports

Thanks for the wonderful group out at CH TV in Hamilton I've become a recurring guest on their show CH Live at 5:30.

They seem to "get it" out there in Hamilton. I've offered myself free of charge to several broadcasters in Southern Ontariio as a "blogger/commentator and although I've been met with great enthusiasm by many, it seems most of them don't know exactly how to use this new resource.

It's huge in the States. Most radio talk shows use "bloggers" as guests and if the "blogger" actually has some broadcasting experience, well then it's even better.

I often chuckle at the talks shows that insist on using newspaper writers as guests.

In many cases most people have no idea who the writers are, and more often than that, the writers don't communicate very well verbally. But because these people can be presented as someone from a "name" newspaper it's considered good radio.

I beg to differ.

Good radio should entertain while informing and entertainment often springs from opinion and that's the spin they use in the States.

Opinionated bloggers with a brain, who are able to convey a constructive thought, are being used more and more to stimulate talk radio.

But not so much here in Canada - instead we seem to lean on the old guard of scribes who play it safe while putting us to sleep.

It will change in time I'm sure. As usual we're just a little behind up here.

Category: Radio | Television

You never like to see a guy get fired, but hey, I have to look at the bright side and Craig Ramsay's firing by the Tampa Bay Lightning yesterday means I might have more company at the Tiki Bar this spring.

I made the disclosure last year that I don't frequent just any trailer park; I have my unit parked at a park that's like no other park in trailer park history.

It's such a nice place it attracts the upper end of trailer trash and that's why one of my tin palace neighbours is Craig Ramsay.

Ramsay has a beautiful unit - like a freakin' cottage on wheels - but because of his commitment in recent years as assistant coach of the Lightning, his summer season was rather short.

We didn't see him until the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and he was usually gone by the last week of August.

That could all change now.

Unless Rammer gets a job "pronto" he could be up at the trailer within a couple of weeks and that's welcome new for me. I'm usually bored and lonely through June until everybody starts taking holidays in July.

Last year, Rammer and I bonded pretty well. We introduced him to bocce ball and this opened the door for him to slide into all other aspects of trailer culture.

The most memorable night of the season last year was our progressive party during the long weekend in August.

It's like a traveling dinner party. You go from trailer to trailer sampling all kinds of different foods - and I must say, Ramsay offered one of the highlights - he makes a fabulous pieaya

Later on we made our way up to Tiki Bar and that's where the attached picture was taken.

Again, you never like to see a guy get fired but considering my situation this will allow me and Rammer to bond even more.

Who knows, within the next week or so we could be sitting at the Tiki Bar cheering on the Anaheim Ducks.

And I'd like to thank Jeff Marek and Bill Watters for giving FreddieP.ca a plug on Leafs Lunch yesterday. They were talking about Craig Ramsay, and my Tiki Bar came up.

Have a listen

Category: Radio | Sports | The Trailer

Holy cow, yesterdays posting about a bit I heard on The Dean Blundell Show sure got a lot of reaction.

Everybody's entitled to their opinion and I've let it be known how I feel about The Blundell Show. I think it's great for Toronto.

Each to their own, and nobody is asking anybody to appreciate this particular radio show, but one thing I will ask you to do is appreciate that Toronto has something like this.

I know that here in Toronto we like to think we're the centre of the universe, but when it comes to radio, we're lacking and we get our ass kicked by a lot of other markets.

Take the Blundell Show and the Derringer Show out of the mix, and Toronto has the "bland" market cornered when it comes to FM radio.

Take these guys away and all we'd be left with is television recaps and entertainment reports surrounded by a lot of forced laughter.

The Blundell Show is not everyone's cup of tea and I fully appreciate those people who pine for the Humble and Fred days, but that was then and this is now. And right now, whether anyone wants to believe it, the Blundell Show is experiencing great success.

So again, if you don't like the show nobody is forcing you to listen. But in this conservative, "creative radio" starved market appreciate what Dean, Jason and Todd are doing - and tip your hat to Corus Entertainment for letting them do it.

Category: Radio

I listened to just about everybody, and no doubt about it, Toronto's master of talk radio won the day when it came coverage of yesterday's tragedy at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate.

Mike's greatest asset is his willingness to let his callers talk without belittling them if they say something a little right of centre.

Mike let his listeners air it out - most of them pissed off about what's happening to the city. They don't want to hear about statistics, reports or poverty, all they care about is what's before them.

A 15 year old kid was shot to death in a Toronto high school and they're scared to death it could happen to their kid.

While others went out of their way to find every excuse under the sun for the behaviour of bad ass kids, Mike let his listeners have thier say and it wasn't necessarily politcally correct.

Good job Staff.

Category: Radio

Yesterday while listening to Leafs Lunch I heard Jeff and Bill talking about Macallan Scotch.

To be honest, I'd never heard of it before so I jotted down the name because Scotch is really the only thing I drink besides beer and the odd glass of wine.

I love Scotch on the rocks. Usually Glenlivet, but to be honest lately I've been reaching for Bells. It's not single malt, but it's extremely smooth and it's reasonably priced.

But after hearing Bill Watters talk about Macallan Scotch yesterday and how much he enjoyed drinking it with Pat Quinn, Rick Lea and the late Steve Stavro I thought I'd buy a bottle and share it with my friends Darren and Dan Duran.

Maybe not.

I googled it last night and 25 year old Macallan single malt that Billy was referring to costs $579.95 a bottle. A little rich for me.

The 30 year old costs $899.00 and even the 18 year old costs $218.00

The only thing in my price range that's offered by Macallan is "Fine Oak" ten year old that lists for $59.95. And I should mention these are all 750 ml bottles.

I usually pay 35 bucks for Bell's and that's the 1140 ml size.

Maybe, just maybe I'll buy at bottle of the Macallan ten year old and see if by any stretch I can imagine what the 25 year old tastes like.

The only way I could ever drink 25 year old scotch would be at some radio station function where I don't have to pay for it.

Wait a minute - I have to pay for everything now.

Category: Radio