Jeremy Baker: The Wanderer

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  0:02  
The Sound Off Podcast. The show about podcast and broadcast starts now.

Matt Cundill  0:12  
Jeremy Baker has gone full circle with his radio career. It started out, commercially at least, at 91.3 The Zone in Victoria. And he's back there now doing middays. We're gonna find out about all the parts in between, including a cross-Canada venture to Halifax, which he's done in the last few years. And some of the stuff that came up before he got into radio. Jeremy Baker joins me from Victoria, British Columbia. Jeremy, why on earth did you ever want to get into radio?

Jeremy Baker  0:42  
Wow, that's a great question right off the hop. I just always loved it growing up, listened to it. My parents loved it, and grew up in the suburbs of Vancouver. So we listened to a lot of 1410 CFUN with a friend Kathy back in the 80s. And then when they made the jump over to KISS, so did my parents, they loved it. And I guess you know, I wanted to do something that I thought maybe they'd love. I loved it. I used to like, do the contests. You know, in the morning, Mom and Dad, Dad would be getting ready to go off to the telecommunications company. And my mom worked for the school board and hustlin our lunches, and the contests would come on and I try to win. And that was always really fun.

Matt Cundill  1:19  
It sounds like a crazy thing now for- oh, we used to all listen together to the radio. 

Jeremy Baker  1:25  
Oh, yeah. It'd be like on in the kitchen while everyone's running around. Bonkers. And then of course, driving. You know, we didn't have a infotainment system in our car. We had the radio. So we listened to the radio in the car going everywhere. And yeah, I mean, grew up with a lot of those soft favorites of yesterday. And today. You know what I mean, like I will always love Billy Joel.

Matt Cundill  1:43  
Where were you driving to? Was often school, or was it activities? 

Jeremy Baker  1:47  
Oh, yeah. All sorts of things. I had a couple of brothers and a sister. So we all played sports. And we all did music. We all did all the things which are play. For me in school, it was bass clarinet. 

Matt Cundill  1:57  
And sports wise, what'd you play? 

Jeremy Baker  1:59  
Hockey, mostly. Yeah. 

Matt Cundill  2:01  
So this is a very typical Canadian upbringing.

Jeremy Baker  2:04  
Yeah, you know, if you grew up in the suburbs in the 80s and 90s, 100%.

Matt Cundill  2:08  
And so when it came to schooling, you went to BCIT. But was there any other? Did you just go straight out of high school? 

Jeremy Baker  2:14  
No. I always liked radio. I always loved it as entertainment. I didn't think that was what I was going to do for a career. In high school, I was more interested in like geology and history and politics. Maybe I kind of thought at the time, or maybe be a lawyer or go into politics or something like that. And I also love earth sciences in history. So those were kind of my interests in high school. And I loved radio, but to me, it was a thing that normal people didn't do. I thought they were more famous than they are the time when I was a kid. So it wasn't till you know, the summer of my high school, or after I graduated that first summer. And I was at a house party. You know, I was bugged with the kids, you know, that were a year above me. And one of the kids was back from his first year of university. And we're at this house party. He's talking about this radio show he had on CGSF, the Simon Fraser University station. I was like, Oh my God, that sounds so fun. I was also very interested in music, I loved- like I was a nerd. I bought every compact disc that came out. My dad used to get mad at me, because I'd spend like my whole, you know, fast food paycheck on CDs and concert tickets. And so I thought that was the greatest. I was like, man, I'd love to have a radio show once a week. And the guy was not helpful. He was just sort of like, yeah, you can't do it, you gotta go to SFU. And that was that. But I had another friend that went to UBC that fall, and he was at whatever Frosh Week, and there was a CITR, the UBC radio station, tent. So he signed up as a student. And it was like, well, you come co-host it with me. And I ended up just kind of taking over the show. So I started college radio, and I loved it. And I wasn't doing so great and other things I was doing. And so my mom, who was a guidance counselor, was like, oh, they have a radio program at BCIT. That seems to be the only thing you show up for every week. Why don't you try that? So I went to BCIT took a part time class, Brian Antonson, and Brian Antonson was like, alright, we'll put you in a full time program that fall. 

Matt Cundill  4:09  
You just made me laugh. It's the only- What did you say, it's the only thing you'd bother to show up for?

Jeremy Baker  4:14  
Yeah, you know, I was one of those kids that, you know, I was more interested in partying than I was working. And college wasn't really agreeing with me at the time. 

Matt Cundill  4:23  
You're on a college radio station and you're not even going to that particular- 

Jeremy Baker  4:27  
Right? Yeah. Never went to UBC. I should get an honorary degree. I went there for five years. I hung out at CITR, I went to- I went to everything except classes. 

Matt Cundill  4:36  
That's fantastic. 

Jeremy Baker  4:38  
Yeah, I loved it, CITR was the best.

Matt Cundill  4:40  
Did you get to play your own stuff? Did you bring in some of your own CDs and- 

Jeremy Baker  4:43  
Oh, yeah. My show was at four in the morning. Went from four in the morning till eight at the beginning. And I just worked my way up. We felt like we hit the big time when I got Friday night at midnight. Because back then people li- you know, cool people listened to CITR, and Friday night was the time to be on because that's when everyone was partying. And if you went to like a house party out in Vancouver in the late 90s, early 2000s, everyone, they just put on the radio, and they would put on CITR, or there was a show on CBC called- 

Matt Cundill  5:12  
Brave New Waves. 

Jeremy Baker  5:13  
Yeah, Brave New Waves, either or was on if you went to a house party just cranked out- or there be, you know, some weird band in the corner playing. So that was a great time. I love being on Friday night. Yeah, I didn't know a lot about commercial radio. So I thought Friday night was the best time I was like, why would people choose to be morning radio?

Matt Cundill  5:30  
Yeah, no. Exactly. And so then you're signed up for BCIT at that point, shortly after, how long did you have to endure that? And I make it sound like it's terrible. But I hear you've already got the radio bug inside of you. So I can only imagine that learning about it is nutty. 

Jeremy Baker  5:46  
Yeah, it was weird for me only in that- God bless BCIT, and I'm sure it's changed a lot. But when I started like, the first month is like how to drop a needle on a record. And that stuff drove me really insane. But Brian Antonson was really good for me. There was a teacher named John Ansel who's passed away now but they were very like Jeremy, we know you know this, you're gonna get an A, just can you hang out in class and help those students that don't know how to drop a needle on a record? Reel to reel tape carts, like all that weird stuff. But in first semester, John Ansel hooked me up with a job at CFUN 1410, which at the time was "talk with attitude." It was like the last place radio station in Vancouver run by CHUM, I guess at the time, QMFM. And so I got on as the op, and I did the overnights, the Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell when he used to be on the radio. And so I got working right away. And so I stay with BCIT for about a year and a half. Me and BCIT, we're not bros for a little bit and I had to drop out. And I didn't take commercial radio was for me at the time. You know, I liked working in CFUN but it paid no money. QMFM you know, bless it was not the coolest radio station to ever work for, and commercial radio at the time. I didn't understand and I didn't like it. So I kind of stayed doing my college radio show. I was in a band, you know, I was kind of a skid. 

Matt Cundill  7:02  
Okay, so what are the CDs that you're buying? Because I'm trying to get a profile of who you are and what you're listening to at this time. 

Jeremy Baker  7:10  
Well in the 90s, it would have been anything on CFOX, which was the main rock'n'roll radio station in Vancouver. So I had like all the one hit wonders. Marvelous 3. 

Matt Cundill  7:19  
Refreshments. 

Jeremy Baker  7:20  
The Refreshments. You know, what's that band that does- 

Matt Cundill  7:26  
Harvey Danger? 

Jeremy Baker  7:27  
Yeah, Harvey Danger. The band that does the song Nerf Herder, whatever they are called. 

Matt Cundill  7:31  
Fastball.

Jeremy Baker  7:32  
Fastball. Yeah, I had all those jams. You know, Tonic, I loved it, anything 90s all that stuff. I loved it. And then once I got to college radio, man, I just I was so into indie rock and punk rock and metal like just full on. And so yeah, just went to every show and had every CD and yeah, all that early 2000s Emo screamo stuff loved it all. 

Matt Cundill  7:55  
Heh. Nerf Herder. 

Jeremy Baker  7:56  
Yeah, Nerf- "I bought Van Halen One. It was the best damn record I ever owned." Yeah, it was the best.

Matt Cundill  8:01  
So when did you shape up? 

Jeremy Baker  8:03  
Well, I was living like a skid for a bit. And that was fun. And once again, my mom was like, can you ple- you have one semester, one semester? Can you go back to school for one semester? And I was working at a hotel at the time in downtown Vancouver, had my college radio show, had my band and you know, being 20- I was 20 whatever. 20 nothing, 21, 22. And so I thought that was fine, but I was like sure one semester, I can go back for one semester. So I went back for that last semester and you have to do a practicum so I sent my demo out all over the place, every small town in BC in Western Canada. I ran into an old boss at CFUN who was working for Mojo radio in Vancouver, 730. So CFUN was talk with attitude, was like a women focus talk. Mojo was men's talk which is popular in that you know, early mid 2000s. So he said I could get you on at Mojo for your practicum, but I don't recommend it. Go anywhere else. So I sent a demo to Hawaii, KPOY, and the Zone in Victoria, I had a buddy named Scott Kirkwood working there. So the only two radio stations that got back to me other than Mojo 730 was Hawaii and Victoria. So then I had to pick, and my mom was like, ah, go to Hawaii. You know, my parents were like, go to Hawaii for a month. That sounds awesome. But I was like, Nah, you know, just go to Victoria because I have a- you know, couches to crash on. So I went to Victoria on the Zone. And then on the first day Lane Mitchell quit. He was doing mornings on Zone. And so Al Ford, who was the program director at the time was like, oh my god, I can't deal with you, kid who I don't know. You'll hang out in the evenings with my buddy Scott Kirkwood who was doing nights and you know, I'll sign whatever you need to sign to graduate and I thought that was fine. And then it was hockey playoff seasons. So Scott Kirkwood wanted to watch hockey in the newsroom, so he's like, do some breaks for me while I watch hockey. Al Ford heard the breaks. He's like, what are you doing on the radio? I'm so mad. And I'm sorry. You know, I just did what the guy told me. He's like, well, I'll talk to Scott Kirkwood tomorrow in my office and you can keep doing nights. So there we go. 

Matt Cundill  10:05  
Did Scott keep his job? 

Jeremy Baker  10:06  
Scott got promoted to middays. 

Matt Cundill  10:10  
Okay, good. 

Jeremy Baker  10:11  
Yeah, Scott- Now had a- Yeah, he had a relationship at the time. You know, you'd have to interview Scott now to find out more about that.

Matt Cundill  10:18  
And the first time I heard Lane Mitchell, it was on the Zone, and he made a departure. I guess he's going to Edmonton at that point. 

Jeremy Baker  10:25  
Yeah, you know, you're gonna have to kind of get Lane, have you had Lane on the show? 

Matt Cundill  10:30  
No, and that's, again, I- this was supposed to be a temporary show that we only were going to do a few episodes for. And then I realized, well, I haven't heard this person's story and that person's story. So I guess that's another reminder that I have to have Lane on the show. 

Jeremy Baker  10:44  
Yeah. And you know what, I'd love to hear Lane's take on it. Basically, he quit for reasons. I don't know why. But it was like sudden, he came back, and then did another year at the Zone and then went to Sonic. 

Matt Cundill  10:56  
Gotcha. 

Jeremy Baker  10:57  
So I think he was going to leave radio or go to college. I can't remember like, he was young, too. Like we're all in early 20s.

Matt Cundill  11:03  
There were some pretty cool people who were working at that station at the time. And I only do this and I'm remembering because you know, 2003 I think I was- went to Canadian Music Week, and met a whole bunch of people from the Zone who were all fresh and great ideas. And some of the people were doing production. And just a fun radio station with a lot of creativity.

Jeremy Baker  11:21  
Oh, yeah, it was. It was definitely righteous time radio was was different back then modern rock was beginning to have a time. The rock stations in Canada were I wouldn't say stale, but they definitely big tent style rock and roll. You know, X had come to Vancouver and kind of blown out and CFOX at that time was very, like, you know, just kind of mainstream meat, potatoes, rock and roll. The Zone in Victoria really had to modern rock stations at the time, Extreme- that's where Todd Hancock got his start. And then the Zone and when I showed up it was- it had been Lane Mitchell in the mornings. But they moved Paul Brown, who's been on the radio for a lot of years, especially in Edmonton. If you listen to the Bear, Paul Brown did mornings. Scott Kirkwood did middays, Sarah P. did afternoons and then I did evenings, and James Sutton was brought on right around that time as well.

Matt Cundill  12:12  
Why does all that work in Victoria? I mean, legendary stations like the Q, the Zone works, other signals coming into the market. Why does it work in Victoria, because all that we hear about the rest of Canada is it's a great place to go and retire and have tea at the Empress at four in the afternoon.

Jeremy Baker  12:30  
Victoria is a lot younger than people- Like the saying is newlywed, nearly dead, right. It's not just like nearly dead is newlywed, nearly dead. So Victoria is also really young. There is a huge university. There's the Navy, and there's the government and they employ like young university educated people. And it's touristy. So there's a lot of hospitality that employs young people, young, vibrant people and a lot of arts and then you are on an island. So it has its own kind of art scene, you have to kind of make your own fun for sure. I think the Zone's secret sauce early on definitely was being part of the Q at the time was owned by a small independent, a couple oil guys from Fort McMurray owned it. And so they had the Q. And the Q was like, you know, dominant station, Ed Bain, Cliff McCain, you know, Kirk Base and all those guys, you know, and still are legends. But at that time, they were number one with a bullet, Zone was brand new. And they were able to subsidize the Zone in those days. I think, you know, you'd have to talk to the business guys, but-

Matt Cundill  13:27  
Compliment, I think, would probably be a- 

Jeremy Baker  13:29  
Compliment. Compliment, you know, you have Al Ford on the show sometime, or Mark Adams or John Shields will tell you about it.

Matt Cundill  13:38  
And you spent like nearly 12 years there. So you started off on the sofa or the couch because you're Canadian, and you worked your way through what positions?

Jeremy Baker  13:48  
So I did evenings for a year and a half, two years. And then basically what happened was the small company that owned the Zone, got a license in Edmonton. And so Al Ford went out there to start Sonic, the company was quite small, and so he couldn't bring everyone obviously they had to leave some people at the Zone. So there was a bit of a schism, I guess, and half the crew went out to Edmonton and half stayed in Victoria. So everyone bounced up. It was kind of real good. At that point, Rick Lee was working doing afternoons on his own. And so, you know, they had Lane doing mornings, and they brought Shippy out there to do production. And I think Sarah Morton might have went out there to run the office. Al Ford went, and then Rick Lee was kind of humming and hawing whether he wanted to go to Edmonton or stay. So in the end, he went and I got Rick Lee's job. So I got afternoons and then I did that for forever. Did afternoons there till 2014 and kind of worked. I did a lot of stuff. I did production for a little bit. I wasn't very good at it, but I helped out and ended up kind of being like, they call it an assistant music director. But for the most part, our music director kind of act like the program director, and I was the assistant music director, but I was like the music director. I don't know did everything I worked all the time. 

Matt Cundill  15:01  
I just love the fact, you use the word schism, which means you've played a lot of Tool. 

Jeremy Baker  15:07  
Oh yeah, for sure. That's an awesome record.

Matt Cundill  15:09  
How about bands that come to Victoria, did you get a lot of concerts coming through? I sort of get the feeling that, you know, Vancouver gets them all. But did you just get the smaller bands to come over to Victoria?

Jeremy Baker  15:20  
Yeah, you know. Yes and no. It's hard to say. And I mean, every Canadian city, and people rocking this podcast across the country are going to complain like, unless you're Toronto, you're going to complain about bands skipping your town.

Matt Cundill  15:34  
I was in Montreal, and we complained about bands going to only Toronto, so. 

Jeremy Baker  15:36  
100%, right, like big bands don't even come to Montreal. So yes, not every show comes to Victoria. But Victoria does have a very active and vibrant art scene. It had some very progressive and proactive concert promoters, independent concert promoters. So we got shows, I mean, The Killers came played the arena. I remember, Tool came, Queens of the Stone Age, like some pretty big bands played Victoria. There's lots of legendary tales, especially before my time of like Pearl Jam playing in Victoria, Nirvana and like Alice in Chains, Green Day played at the park downtown in the bandshell. You know, like, those things happened. And then of course, they started a festival there in the later years I was there called Rifflandia and tons of artists came through there.

Matt Cundill  16:24  
Yeah. And so I was going to talk a little bit about Seattle because you're within earshot of KISW and 107.7 The End. And I guess that's kind of why I'm surprised that so much of that great music can live sort of on the band all at once. You know, I've had Kathy Faulkner on here, but I can totally see why Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam should come to Victoria. It's within earshot of those Seattle stations, but also your station. 

Jeremy Baker  16:48  
Yeah, Red Hot Chili Peppers play I remember I interviewed Red Hot Chili Peppers one time in Vancouver. I'm like, Hey, man, tell me a memory you have of Vancouver and they're like, Yeah, taking the ferry to Victoria. So the bands love it when they do come. It's just you know, nowadays, and just there's challenges of being on an island and doing a show. But yeah, those Seattle stations don't come in to Victoria, as much as maybe people think they're very fuzzy. You got to be like on the south part of Victoria to get to Seattle stations. I think if anything people listed there's one out of Bellingham, I think it's KZOK, or something like that. 

Matt Cundill  17:20  
Yeah. 

Jeremy Baker  17:21  
People listen to that more in the Lower Mainland or Victoria than some of the Seattle ones. They don't come in as well as people think. We actually- The Zone shot into Wa- we had a lot of listeners in Washington state, because we kind of shot across the water into like the rural parts of Washington State, like where all the farms are, and around Bellingham and Olympic Peninsula.

Matt Cundill  17:40  
And for those who don't know, Victoria is the capital of British Columbia. But talk a little bit about the ferry just so that people- because people think British Columbia, they only really think of Vancouver. So give people a little idea about where it's sort of how to get there from Vancouver. 

Jeremy Baker  17:55  
Yeah, if you're in Vancouver, you have to take a ferry boat, and it's not a long ride. It's an hour and a half from Victoria or from Vancouver. But it's a hassle. And it's expensive. It's not it's not a cheap date for working people. So when you're in Victoria, you know, when I first moved there, as a kid, I went back and forth all the time. And there's times in my life where I am more or less commuted, and you can do it, but it's not fun. So once you live in Victoria, once you live in Vancouver, you'd really just kind of go back and forth when you need to, if that makes sense. No, it does. It's like you have to get to the ferry like an hour and a half early. Sit there. It's an hour and a half. And the ferry terminal in Vancouver is like it's not in Vancouver is a deep suburb. And the ferry terminal in Victoria is like at the top of the Saanich Peninsula. It's like a 40 minute drive out of town.

Matt Cundill  18:44  
How'd you get to CFOX in Vancouver in 2015?

Jeremy Baker  18:47  
You know, I got a message from Drex first of all people. Drex messaged me. And he was like, Hey, man, would you be interested in coming to CFOX? And that was just out of nowhere. And I was like, Yes, I would.

Matt Cundill  18:58  
So what was he doing at the time?

Jeremy Baker  19:01  
He was doing evenings. And I guess Ronnie Stanton and Dustin Collins who were running it at the time. They'd heard me because the Zone does shoot into the lower mainland. And they were making changes at CFOX at that time, changing the music. There was a lot going on. I mean, if you haven't had Ronnie or Dustin on, that'd be an interesting chat. I think for a lot of broadcasters just kind of what they did with CFOX and what needed to happen with Corus at that time, and Corus Vancouver, but they made a lot of changes. And I was part of those changes.

Matt Cundill  19:32  
I was part of those changes too in Winnipeg, but at the wrong end. 

Jeremy Baker  19:36  
Yes. Right. So it's it's always an interesting thing to talk about. But I was on the other side of those changes. And I was working for Patterson at the time I wanted to work at the Peak so badly I applied there like 40 times. Now that's exaggeration, but I applied there a few times and they just were not interested in me. And so of Corus was like message me and was like Hey, we would like to pay you double what you're making Victoria. I said, okay, and that was easy. Took a week.

Matt Cundill  20:03  
I have had Ronnie on the show before. 

Jeremy Baker  20:05  
Yeah, Ronnie's got some takes. 

Matt Cundill  20:07  
Yeah, we may have and I'm gonna have to have him on again, because he's he's working now in Europe, and they're doing so well with radio in Europe. And I'd like to bring them on at some point to talk about why they're succeeding and why we're failing.

Jeremy Baker  20:19  
Ronnie's the man. Yeah, he's doing Virgin, like a head of like Virgin international or something. Now, it's, it's crazy. It's crazy. 

Matt Cundill  20:26  
That's right. 

Jeremy Baker  20:27  
Yeah, he's just like a radio whisperer.

Matt Cundill  20:29  
And so you know, those changes also included, I think, the departure of Todd Hancock, which led to him going and starting his podcast, of which I think he's like episode number two on this very series for anybody who wants to go back and hear what it's like to be on the other end of that story. But you get into CFOX, part of these great changes that are going on radio wise. So what did you bring to CFOX? And what were some of those changes? And how did the station sort of evolve in 2015? 

Jeremy Baker  20:55  
Well, for me, at the time, it was very scary. I'd only really been on the Zone. And personally at that point in my life, I was feeling very stunted. I kind of got as high up in Pattison, I think as I could go, Dylan and Jason were smashing in the morning zone, I wasn't gonna get that job ever. And they weren't interested in me at the Peak. And I was at that point in my life, had some young kids and was hustling, like 40 jobs, you know, just to make ends- like the Zone didn't pay me very much. I just kind of got by. And so I had to work. Like every weekend, I DJ'd around Victoria, mostly to make ends meet. And that was fun. I like DJing is a super fun job. But it was starting to grind on me for sure. And so when I came to CFOX, it felt really good that they reached out to me, but I was also very nervous, and very scared, because I didn't know. But Ronnie and Dustin, were so lovely to me and Britters and everyone that worked there. They were like, no, no, man, we listen to you on the Zone, just do your Zone, just do your show on the Zone on CFOX. Like we want that, we found your show, and we liked it. And we want you to do that and don't not do that. So they kind of helped me early on, feel comfortable. And everyone at Corus at that time was very lovely. All the guys at Rock 101 were really nice. And everyone at CFOX was quite supportive. So that made me feel good. And then once it kind of was settled in that's, you know, when Ronnie and Dustin kind of opened up the hood of it and tinkered on the show. But I mean, they just tinker, they don't tell you what to do. They just give you insight. They give you any market research or data that they have to help your show be better. But that's kind of what they do.

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Matt Cundill  22:54  
You've been at the Zone. And now you're at CFOX, what do you fundamentally see as the- was the evolution of radio through that period, were the breaks shorter? Were the bits shorter? Were the bands? What's the relationship with the music?

Jeremy Baker  23:19  
Yeah, I guess I- at the time, that was maybe during an era with really short breaks. That's kind of when- when they were- I don't know why. But even though I think a lot of data does point that people like the personalities in good to talk tends to win. You know, like I don't, I don't like to say talk wins, because bad talk is a big turn off, obviously. But good talk, compelling talk is a winner. But I don't know. So yeah, early on, I think I was kind of focused on like being super tight. But once again, Ronnie and Dustin, were like, no, just do your thing. Like if you, if you make me not want to turn off the radio, then you're doing your job, musically, Ronnie and Dustin, were all about maybe not letting too much personal energy get in the way of the music and letting the audience you know, like not telling the audience what they like. And that's probably one of the best lessons I've ever taken maybe from Ronnie and Dustin and CFOX in general was that they had a plan. It was kind of based in the science that they understood it at the time. And then they they were focused on it and and when it was winning, and it didn't one my whole time there. So it was a good place to work. You know, it was- it's fun when you win. So it was good.

Matt Cundill  24:29  
And your time ends there in 2021, which is kinda we're about a year after the pandemic.

Jeremy Baker  24:36  
Yeah, pandemic was still kind of happening a little bit, was the tail end of it for sure.

Matt Cundill  24:40  
Yeah. Was there some musical chairs going on in the market that sort of precipitated your move to the Peak?

Jeremy Baker  24:46  
Yeah. At CFOX earlier, Ronnie had left to go to the US. He worked for a company out of California. I think Alpha maybe?

Matt Cundill  24:54  
He worked at Alpha Media and I think it was based out of Portland.

Jeremy Baker  24:57  
Oh, sure. Yeah, but he lived in California. Yeah, so he went to Alpha. So Dustin stepped up took over that role, which was great. And then one day, you know, in- I can't remember when 2020 or something like that Dustin left to go run the Peak. And Ronnie came back. So for me it was, you know, it's always when your boss leaves, that's you're dead, right? Like you're dead every time. And in my case, I was very fortunate. Like, in fact, I'd get the news and usually the, you know, Ronnie's like, I'm leaving. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm gonna get fired. He's like, No, Dustin's gonna be the boss. Cool. And then Dustin left, and I was like, Oh, my God, I'm getting fired. And Brad, you know, is running Corus at the time is like no, Ronnie's coming back. Okay, good. So that was nice. So Dustin had left to go to the Peak. And he was there for a little while. And then they let Tyler and Lynch go in the mornings, and were making some changes there. And that's when Dustin said, you know, message up when he was able to, and we were able to chat a little bit about it. And he had this idea for morning show of putting me and Charis Hogg, who had been on you know, OG Jeff O'Neill show back in the, you know, 2000s, when Jeff ONeill show really started rocketing to the, to the fame that they enjoyed to this day.

Matt Cundill  26:04  
Establishing heritage. 

Jeremy Baker  26:06  
Yeah, and I mean, a lot of you know, a lot of market research is going to point to that being generally a winning idea, you know, the Peak, awesome radio station, super fun, but was maybe a little too nerdy. And that was kind of reflected in the ratings. And one thing that Dustin and Ronnie were kind of about were, you know, playing music that people want to hear, not telling them what they want to hear necessarily. And so Dustin had this kind of plan for the Peak to make a guerilla modern rock- like modern rock wins in so many cities, right like Indie and X and Sonic, and all through the US. And in just in Vancouver for whatever reason it hadn't. So Dustin had this plan. And it was an opportunity for me I always wanted to do mornings in Vancouver was my goal, my dream when I started. And so yeah, we went to the Peak, and then it happened.

Matt Cundill  26:55  
There you were back on Pattison after- you know.

Jeremy Baker  26:59  
Yeah. And I was- I was so psyched. I've been a soldier for Pattison for 100 years and made no money for them. And I'm like, finally I get a contract, this is great.

Matt Cundill  27:07  
Sometimes you do have to leave in order to come back.

Jeremy Baker  27:11  
For sure. For sure. For a lot of people, I would maybe would have a different take personally. But.

Matt Cundill  27:17  
Pandemic, I mean, we've talked about it on the show so often, we don't need to revisit what happened. I think we all have a pretty good idea. Tell me about the demise of 102.7 the Peak and why it stopped. And as we are recording this, we should sort of stress, it's also back. 

Jeremy Baker  27:34  
It's also back, yeah. It's hard. Like I I was the morning show and stuff sort of happened. But these decisions kind of get made at a pay grade above radio DJ. So it's hard for me to know exactly what they were thinking. But it was an example of dusty came into the office one day and he's like, I am no longer with Pattison and me and Charis were like okay, we're done. And a couple of days later, it all started shaking out. My understanding was, I don't know, they had this Now format, which worked in Edmonton. And they believed it would work in Vancouver, but they just kind of believed it or wished it and they blew up the peak and I don't know, you know, once again, you might have to talk to some insiders at Pattison to get the full story. My take was that obviously people at Pattison Vancouver were not psyched on this decision. And it was hard. It was not fun. And it was especially challenging because I just come over from CFOX and months later they're blunt like we had an opportunity to do our show. And I was like man if you guys had any planning I could still be at CFOX, working.

Matt Cundill  28:46  
Yeah, was there any inclination or something inside of you that said, boy, I wish they kept me around for this format or it's just part of that new format that they bring in to blow everybody else, and then just bring in all these fresh bodies. I've always found it weird that we're going to bring in the format but we're going to also dust off all these other people.

Jeremy Baker  29:04  
I don't think they had a ton of research would probably be my take, they, I think, were coming from a place of emotion when they made this format flip and they brought in guys who weren't weren't my guy. Like me and Charis wanted- we were like okay, well, sure you me and Charis could do conversation radio, they had us listen to the Now announcers in the other markets. And we're like, oh my god, yeah, we can talk about nothing for an hour or four hours, whatever you want. And they just they had people that thought rocker jocks couldn't do Now. And so then they kind of thought about keeping us as an online show. But Charis and I know the business and what they were paying us was not going to work for an online streaming radio station long term. So we did that for a little bit. But that had an end date. They were pretty honest about that. At least locally at Pattison Vancouver. They didn't they didn't lie to us too much. They were like, here's what's up. And we need you know Charis is a working mom and I'm a working parent, we need the job. So we worked on this internet radio station and it had really good ratings, or I mean streaming numbers. So JR was kind of going through a thing at the time, Now's ratings collapsed. And the one area of growth when we'd have ratings meetings would be this Peak streaming numbers. And me and Charis would just kind of laugh and be like, cool, man. So yeah, that's that's what happened. And they pieced us out. And that was that. 

Matt Cundill  30:30  
Yeah, you know what, I'm really glad that most of these companies took this step to go and put this form of radio on the radio, because I think anytime something new is introduced to people, it's a good thing. But the fact that people have not grabbed on to these formats, whether it's Winnipeg, Toronto, Vancouver, and really only Edmonton has really been the success story with this, which they put on the air many, many years ago.

Jeremy Baker  30:50  
You put on- Yeah, launching a radio station, a new brand in this era, is going to be a challenge for sure. And that's what I mean, I don't think they fully appreciated that at the time. Just unfortunately, they kind of used everyone that was working at the Peak as their learning lessons. And you know, hopefully they got those lessons. But yeah. 

Matt Cundill  31:09  
Yeah, I've seen a few cases in the last number of years where it's like, let's get rid of this. No, now let's bring it back, so.

Jeremy Baker  31:16  
Yeah, for sure. For sure. 

Matt Cundill  31:18  
It's tough to fault people for trying. But at the same time, I think the lesson is now out there, is that if you've got a brand that's already established, stick with it and take care of it as much as possible.

Jeremy Baker  31:29  
Yeah, 100- And you know, you will have Ronnie Stanton on the show. He'll talk about that for sure. Yeah, you know, it was unfortunately kind of used the workers a little bit maybe like fantasy football players a little bit to test this stuff out. But yeah, it you know, you got to put your helmet on, and I don't think they had the stomach for it. And so then the Peak comes back, but it's not the same Peak.

Matt Cundill  31:50  
And then you travel across Canada,

Jeremy Baker  31:53  
Yeah, an opportunity came up while I was on the beach to go to Halifax, Jeff Brown was doing the mornings on Surge 105 with Amy, and he had a stroke. And so they needed someone just to you know, the station was fairly new in the morning show is very new. And they're like, Oh, my God, we're just launching a new brand. And we need someone and my name came up. So I went out there for for a five month contract. And yeah, it was awesome.

Matt Cundill  32:19  
So that was always going to be a short contract that you were going out there to do that, or?

Jeremy Baker  32:23  
Yeah, it was like a five month medical leave contract, which I was quite happy with. And then they were like, okay, and if you love it, we want you to stay, we'll find a job for you. If Jeff gets better, we'll find a job for you. If Jeff doesn't get better, it's your morning show. And I said, okay, cool. I don't think I want to move to Halifax full time, but I'll give it a shot. And I brought my family out over the summer. But when September rolled around, it wasn't looking like Jeff was going to be back in time. So they wanted me to stay. But you know, I had a life back in the suburbs of Vancouver with my wife and kids. And I was like, I gotta- I gotta come back. And I could do it remotely. And they're like, no, no, you know, live and local. And I get it respect that, of course, like, that's what you want radio stations to do. So I was going to come back in September, but they hadn't found a new forever host yet. So I ended up signing a bunch of like short term two month contracts while they were finding a forever host. And so I did it for another five months remotely from Coquitlam. So waking up at midnight, and hopping on with Amy at 1 and the show went live at 2am Pacific Time, and I had a radio show in the middle of the night. 

Matt Cundill  33:24  
Okay, so I was just about to make jokes about that, because a lot of people don't know that it's four hours, it is wild. So for those in other parts of the world who don't have to deal with time zones in a country as big as Canada, Vancouver and Halifax is nearly as far apart as you can get without bringing Newfoundland into this.

Jeremy Baker  33:43  
Oh, yeah, it's like 6000 kilometers from Vancouver to Halifax. Right?

Matt Cundill  33:47  
So if you wanted to go to Halifax, you get on a plane in Vancouver at 9, you're arriving at six o'clock at night in Halifax and your day is over. 

Jeremy Baker  33:56  
Oh it's later, this later. Like I would get on a plane- when I was flying- because I went back and forth throughout the summer. And flying from Halifax to Vancouver is cool, because you're chasing the time zones. So you like do your six hour flight, but four hours later, you're in Vancouver. It's awesome. But the reverse would be like oh man, I get on a plane. Yeah, nine, and I'd get to Halifax at like 11 o'clock that night.

Matt Cundill  34:17  
And we should stress that that show that you were doing, that's a morning show. So you're getting up at midnight. 

Jeremy Baker  34:22  
And then be on the radio the next morning. 

Matt Cundill  34:25  
And you're starting at 2am. 

Jeremy Baker  34:27  
Yeah, going live and yeah, it was early on I had the energy for it but over the fi- it was like five, five and a half months, it- man the grind. Yeah, the grind kind of took over.

Matt Cundill  34:37  
And I should stress, or at least mention, that the station that you were working at is- so it was Surge 105, and it was Acadia Broadcasting. 

Jeremy Baker  34:45  
Yep. Acadia Broadcasting. 

Matt Cundill  34:47  
So shout out to Scott Pettigrew, who is there who I had a chance to work with in Winnipeg. 

Jeremy Baker  34:52  
Yeah, Jeremy Slattery is the program director. Yeah, they were awesome. I loved it. It was super fun.

Matt Cundill  34:56  
But tell me about your impressions of Halifax because I got to experience some of it not necessarily by listening to your show. But by experiencing, you know, what you're seeing in social media. And I thought, well, that's a long way for someone to go to do radio to travel across the country. Not too many people are moving around the country anymore, you know, for jobs, but you went a long way. And was it your first time out- out east? 

Jeremy Baker  35:21  
I had been there like in 1998. Like, you know what I was like, it's talking about being a skit back in the day me and my friends like drove across the country. You know? 

Matt Cundill  35:29  
To go see Sloan. 

Jeremy Baker  35:31  
Yeah, living in ditches and stuff. And Halifax was fun because 18 is- where's the bar? That's three levels of bar downtown Halifax.

Matt Cundill  35:40  
Upper- lower deck, upper deck, right?

Jeremy Baker  35:42  
Yeah, lower deck. Like you know, that's that's what we were into at the time. Where's pizza corners?

Matt Cundill  35:48  
King of Donaire.

Jeremy Baker  35:49  
Yeah, Halifax is awesome. It's like, it's like a bizarro world Victoria. Really. Just punk rock Victoria. 

Matt Cundill  35:55  
Yeah. 

Jeremy Baker  35:56  
I love it. I mean, like, I'm a history guy. So there's a giant fort. Like, right downtown, like right downtown Halifax. There's a giant star fort. And I love all that stuff. Like everywhere you go and how if you throw a rock, you hit a fort. You know, it's like you're going to a park and there's old battlements, it's great. So I loved all that stuff. Halifax feels more like a big city compared to Victoria, even though they're very similar size. Halifax has like it's old Canada. You know, it's like you're walking downtown. Like, that's where the Royal Bank started in 1792. You know, you're just like, what is happening? So there's a lot of old buildings and then a lot of new buildings. So they keep the old ones and they shoot new ones out of the top. The city likes a party, and they love sports, which is great. I love sports. And they support the, you know, they don't have the Pro leagues. They just have the, you know, Canadian Premier League Soccer and Quebec Major Junior kind of stuff. And it's packed.

Matt Cundill  36:48  
Well, Halifax Mooseheads. Is that still a thing? 

Jeremy Baker  36:50  
It's the Wanderers. Yeah, Mooseheads are awesome. Yeah. Mooseheads with the Q team. It was great. I loved it. 

Matt Cundill  36:55  
Yeah. And you got your hat on there? 

Jeremy Baker  36:57  
Yes. The soccer team. Yeah. 

Matt Cundill  36:59  
Yeah. That's also why St. Mary's University does very well for football as we await the arrival of the CFL Schooners. 

Jeremy Baker  37:08  
Yeah, they can- Oh, man, that's all they talk about.

Matt Cundill  37:11  
We've been waiting now for 40 years for that to happen. 

Jeremy Baker  37:13  
Yeah, what was it, the 70s they started talking about that? 

Matt Cundill  37:16  
Yeah. 

Jeremy Baker  37:17  
It's gotta happen. I don't understand it. Like if I'm the CFL, I would have had a team there yesterday. Then they would win attendance record the whole league that first year. 

Matt Cundill  37:25  
Yeah. Do they have a facility? 

Jeremy Baker  37:27  
They don't, but they don't care. They they'd be like, bring your lawn chair and 10,000 people would bring a lawn chair every week. 

Matt Cundill  37:33  
That might be the problem. 

Jeremy Baker  37:35  
No, I it's not a problem. They were- the soccer stadium was like shipping containers and like high school bleachers, and it's like 6000 5000 people. 

Matt Cundill  37:44  
Yeah, there's enough money down there between Sobeys and Irving to make that happen.

Jeremy Baker  37:49  
Yeah, it hits him. That's who owned the Surge. Irving. 

Matt Cundill  37:52  
There you go. Right? 

Jeremy Baker  37:54  
So yeah, Halifax is rad. It was a great place, party town. 

Matt Cundill  37:57  
And then you had to head back. 

Jeremy Baker  37:59  
Yeah, you know, I did bring my family out. We did a summer, you know, I rented a two bedroom apartment in the suburbs of Halifax and the family came out but at the end of the day, you know, home was here in BC so I- My wife has a job and kids are all in school and you know, my daughter's high school age. So you know, she wanted to finish high school and all that stuff. So you know, I went out there thinking we could move to Halifax but ultimately we did not. 

Matt Cundill  38:23  
Interesting. And when you say suburbs is that- is that Bedford, is that Dartmouth, where you living?

Jeremy Baker  38:29  
I was still in Halifax proper. I lived all over the place and lived downtown the first month I was there, and I lived in the north end which is kind of the hipster neighborhood which is great, loved it. And Scott Pettigrew's son's basement suite. 

Matt Cundill  38:42  
Nice. 

Jeremy Baker  38:43  
And they were lovely. 

Matt Cundill  38:45  
Old school radio. I love it. 

Jeremy Baker  38:47  
Oh, yeah, it was- it was awesome. Scott put me up in his son's basement suite way out in the north end right at the end almost. And then I moved. I can't remember it was Halifax town. But right at the very end, Bear's Lake area. Near Costco.

Matt Cundill  39:00  
Well, the Costco and also Maritime Broadcast I think has their their building out near that area too.

Jeremy Baker  39:05  
Oh, yeah. They might have, they might have out there. So yeah, that was awesome. I was out. Yeah, by Bears Lake Road or something like that. Lacewood Drive. And it was great. My kids played with the local kids, ran around, and you know, it was awesome. We went down to their harbor and got ice cream and went to Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, Montreal- or, we didn't go to Montreal. Quebec City. It was awesome.

Matt Cundill  39:27  
Did you take the bridge to PEI? 

Jeremy Baker  39:29  
Yeah, the ferry was always broken.

Matt Cundill  39:31  
Isn't it great? You can actually get to an island and not have to deal with the ferry. 

Jeremy Baker  39:35  
Oh, for sure. But they still run the ferry. I think just for fun. I don't know for cutesies. But it's broken, all that- like the whole summer I was there all it was like, oh, propeller broke. It'll be down for three weeks and we're like, Okay, well, clearly you don't need it. You don't need the ferry. So get rid of it. But whatever. That's a maritime thing. They can sort that out.

Matt Cundill  39:52  
And in the full circle moment of the whole thing. Here you are, you're back at the Zone. 

Jeremy Baker  39:56  
Yeah, I had a chance to go back to the Zone and and kind of doing a little half day midday show.

Matt Cundill  40:03  
How do you do a half day midday show?

Jeremy Baker  40:05  
Well, it's like 10 to 12. It's just a two hour show. 

Matt Cundill  40:09  
Okay. 

Jeremy Baker  40:10  
Yeah. So it's not the mid day, you know? 10 to 2 sort of thing. 

Matt Cundill  40:13  
Good to be back?

Jeremy Baker  40:15  
Yeah. I love it. The Zone's the best. Victoria is awesome.

Matt Cundill  40:17  
And Victoria too? 

Jeremy Baker  40:19  
Yeah, I broadcast from where I'm doing the podcast right now. But yeah, gives me an excuse to go to Victoria more. And, and I love it. And maybe we'll end up back on the island one day. 

Matt Cundill  40:29  
Tell me a little bit about what you see for the future of radio. Do you have any hot takes or anything that you want to share? 

Jeremy Baker  40:35  
Hot takes? Wow. Well, I you know, it's challenging. I'm sure you've had a few people on the podcast that have talked about that a bit. I don't know if I have a hot take. 

Matt Cundill  40:46  
Because you've done a lot, you know, aside from moving markets, but you've also had dabbled in streaming. 

Jeremy Baker  40:51  
For sure. 

Matt Cundill  40:52  
You know, we're recording a podcast now. Do you see anything that maybe radio could use or any tips that they could pick up to really sort of, you know, boost the medium?

Jeremy Baker  41:01  
I mean, I was listening to your podcast. Was the last dude named Jeremy?

Matt Cundill  41:05  
It's only chance, by the way, that we have to Jeremy's in a row. But yeah.

Jeremy Baker  41:08  
Yeah. Okay. So he was kind of talking about- and I agreed with his take, where he said, you know, radio does not do a great job of sharing their content digitally. So what I have been inspired by is, is non radio people who do a radio show on the internet, you know, podcasting, for example. And you do a podcast with like about a thing. And a lot of people do that- a lot of podcasts, like, listen to the real estate podcast or whatever, right. But there are a lot of performers. And I'm starting to I guess, treat myself more as an entertainer and less like a radio DJ. There are a lot of entertainers online, who basically do radio breaks, they do bits. And that's all radio people do. But radio people don't put them on the internet. And so I think other people are kind of drinking their milkshake, you know, to use the old saying from the you know, whatever that movie was like, I'm gonna drink your milkshake. Daniel Day Lewis. And I think a lot of people have been drinking radio's milkshake. And I think radio needs to kind of take it back a little bit. And I feel like maybe there's a lot of programming right now, that feels, you know, to use a sports analogy. They're coaching not to win. They're coaching not to lose, right? They're not coaching to win, they're coaching not to lose. And when you cheer on your favorite sports team, and you see your team doing that, you know, you're going to lose ultimately, right, the other team is going to score two goals in the last three minutes. And you're gonna be like, what?

Matt Cundill  42:34  
Yeah, the prevent defense, which never works. 

Jeremy Baker  42:37  
Yeah. It just prevents you from winning. And I'm sure there's a stats that say no, no, prevent defense works more than fans think. But it doesn't matter, if fans think that it sucks. It sucks. So a lot of radio programming right now seems it'd be like more like managing collapse more than aiming to win. And so I've been kind of taking a lot of my cues lately from performers who basically do radio bits, but do it on the radio. And there are some radio people that do it right, like I mean, I'm really inspired by like Coulter, right, from the Edge. He got so popular doing his bits on TikTok, he left radio. Like that's incredible. Or I look at like Lauren Hunter at Sonic, it's like, to me, she's more of an online entertainer than a radio DJ. It's like she's an online entertainer who also has a part time job on the radio. I mean, I know that's not the case. But that's almost what it feels like.

Matt Cundill  43:27  
Yeah, it feels like perception wise. And I had that experience too. Because I met a- there was a young girl she was I think, 14-15 and I mentioned, Shannon Burns, and she goes, oh, I follow her on TikTok. She's my favorite. I said, do you know she's on the radio? It's like, no, she didn't know that.

Jeremy Baker  43:44  
Look at Jax in Toronto, would be another great example. She's not on the radio, like, did she lose her job on the radio? I wouldn't know it, because her content is still so good. It might be better than when she was on the radio. So you know, I've been inspired by that. But now I follow a lot of comedians and a lot of performers. And the one thing that I'm picking up from them is basically like, you know, we're in our little podcast screen here, I got my microphone, I get my hot take. It's a minute and a half, it's 45 seconds, like a radio break. And that's, to me, how I'm consuming media right now. It's who I want my target audience to be as consuming media. And I think that's kind of a place where I want to- want to be and get better at, and keep learning and growing. So I find now when I'm reaching out for insight on, you know, how I want to make my videos, often I'm reaching out to entertainers and comedians as much as radio DJs. And I'm only really reaching out to radio DJs if they're already doing that, you know, I mean, like, if it's, if it's like Alex Carr, or you know, other people kind of doing that, you know, Meredith is doing that a lot as well. Meredith Geddes. To me, that works really well.

Matt Cundill  44:49  
Jeremy, thanks so much for doing this. I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to talk to me.

Jeremy Baker  44:55  
Thanks, Matt. I know you're a online creator. I don't know if I've ever listened to a Matt Cundill podcast beginning to end, but I listened to 100 bits of Matt Cundill podcasts. 

Matt Cundill  45:06  
Thanks, man.

Tara Sands (Voiceover)  45:06  
The Sound Off Podcast is written and hosted by Matt Cundill. Produced by Evan Surminski. Edited by Taylor McLean. Social media by Aidan Glassey. Another great creation from the Soundoff Media Company. There's always more at soundoffpodcast.com.