Dan O'Toole - The Jay and Dan Show

Dan O’Toole

National television Sportscaster

Photo By Karen Irvine

I met up with Dan O’Toole in Peterborough. You will know him from the Jay and Dan Show on SportsCentre in the morning. Dan is an avid supporter of the Kawarthas and all it has to offer.

A Taste of the Kawarthas (ATOTK): Good afternoon my friend! I hope your cold is getting better. Dan O’Toole (DO): I know, this summer cold it’s driving me nuts. You wake up and it’s just AH!

ATOTK: Maybe you should take a sick day. (laughs) DO: (laughs) Yah. I haven’t taken one since around 2002.

ATOTK: Sorry we didn’t hook up for golfing last week, but the (Raptors) Parade stopped that. DO: I know. I was looking forward to that but then I realized The Raptors Parade was that day. I had a delivery coming and had to go to work early. It really was a combination of a lot of stuff. And last year at this time I had golfed at least 10 times. This year so far - Zero. But we will get out there. (laughs)

Photo By Karen Irvine

ATOTK: You grew up close to Peterborough near Keene. DO: Yes. From the 115 you hang a right away from town and the farm was just kilometers from the turn.

ATOTK: What was it like growing up on the farm? DO: It was a typically farm life. Meaning, a family with many kids because it was basically slave labour. (laughs) Back then, every day I had a ham sandwich in my lunch to support the industry we were in. We had hay and 1000 head of pigs, we picked stones and fed the pigs. Friends would be going away for the weekend having fun while we were working. One thing a farm does, is that it gives you a good work ethic. We would go into the woods, play for hours and no one checked on us until we heard the dinner bell. (laughs)

ATOTK: You had better hear that dinner bell, I remember. (laughs) DO: Oh Exactly! Nowadays if you have a kid out in the woods for 5 hours with no bug spray or sunscreen and never checked on them you’d probably be put in jail. (laughs)

ATOTK: I grew up building forts and helping on farms, so I get it. DO: Yeah. I’m in Orono now, so we kind of have a piece of that. We back onto conservation land and it’s amazing. We go into the woods every single day and build forts and no one is ever back there. It’s like it’s our own little forest.

ATOTK: I pass by Orono all the time but haven’t stopped there in years. DO: I told them, on the Orono sign the slogan should be, “Orono: Why have you never stopped?” (laughs)

ATOTK: Maybe they should add your name underneath the Orono sign and more people will come. (laughs) DO: (laughs) No, that’s my buddy Brian Bickell. He’s from Orono and won the Stanley Cup with the Hawks, so it’s the home of Brian Bickell. And he’s helping me build my deck right now.

ATOTK: Wow! How cool is that! DO: He was the first person to greet me when I moved here.

Photo By Karen Irvine

ATOTK: What other things do you love about the Kawarthas that keeps you a local boy? DO: Well, because you feature so many food related articles and I’m not just pandering to the audience, Peterborough is my favourite place to go for lunch. I eat there all the time. I just made plans with my mother on Friday and the kids are out of school, so we will be going to Sam’s Deli and getting their delicious sandwiches. I’ve got about 5 favourites on that menu. The lunch choices in general are top notch in Peterborough. It’s a little hidden gem that people are starting to discover.

ATOTK: We have 52 restaurants in the downtown core alone. DO: And I can’t believe the longevity of those restaurants! I mean, how long has Hot Belly Mama’s been open? The band, The Arkells, were on our show the

other night. When they are in Peterborough, Hot Belly Mama’s is their go to spot every time. And Gerti’s! It seems if you open a restaurant there and do a great job you are going to be there for 20 plus years.

ATOTK: And that’s why A Taste of the Kawarthas Food Tours are a great experience, tasting from different establishments. And the history of the area is part of the experience. They are both stops on the tour. DO: I know! We talked about that! Book me in. I can’t wait! Exactly! Back in the day, my first job off the farm was at the original location of the Parkhill Cafe. I was a dishwasher and then worked my way up to helping prepare food. I worked with Conrad and Marnie for a lot of years.

Photo By Karen Irvine

ATOTK: Switching gears, hockey is a huge part of Canadians’ lives but I think Peterborough has to be on top for the love and support of the sport and, of course, the Peterborough Petes. DO: My favourite part of my job is that we cover the Olympics. We’ve covered the last four. It doesn’t matter if I’m in Russia, London England, or South Korea, when I mention Peterborough people immediately say “Oh! The Petes!” It’s an international greeting card to the world. Everyone knows The Petes. It’s kind of neat and kind of makes your heart feel full when no matter where you are in the world people know exactly the town that you’re from. There’s nothing wrong with being famous for a hockey team that puts us on the map.

ATOTK: You played and you were a goalie, right? DO: I did. I played in Keene. You know the size of me, I didn’t stop a lot of pucks. (laughs) But it was fun. We had jerseys that were just Orange and Black with no name. And now it’s the Otonobee Wolves.

(Dan is going through a drive-thru, and says “What? It went up 10 cents? Game changer!”) (laughs) He continues,

DO: So yeah, I played in all the other small rinks like Hastings, Norwood, Warkworth and Campbellford. And whenever I talk about it, it always starts talks about the canteens and what each one specialized in. Like one makes great hot chocolate, one makes great fries and one makes great hot dogs. I want someone to write a

book on cross Canada rink food because it’s the first smell you smell when you walk into the rink.

Photo By Karen Irvine

ATOTK: What made you want to get into Broadcast Journalism? DO: Well, I realized I didn’t want to be a farmer because that’s way too much work, so at St. Peters High School I did a co-op course and tried my hand at teaching. I thought, “I can’t put up with these kids, I’ll lose it on them.” (laughs) So I didn’t have the patience to be a teacher. Next I did a co-op at Trent Radio and they let me do whatever I wanted. It didn’t seem like a lot of work, just a lot of fun. So I went to Algonquin College in Ottawa and things all fell into place.

ATOTK: You worked in Vancouver and Fort McMurray. DO: Yeah, my first job was an airborne traffic reporter flying around Vancouver. The company was based out of Toronto so I drove from Ottawa to Toronto for the interview and they hired me because I agreed to work for like $13,000 a year and move across the country with no payment for moving. They were like, “This is our guy”. (laughs) So I did 501 flights in a little 1972 Cesna. I had to drive the pilot’s car out. The speedometer, the heat and the radio didn’t work so it was an adventure. (laughs)

ATOTK: You started at TSN in 2002. When did Jay Onrait come into the picture? DO: Changes in personal and professional situations with Blake Price, Darren Dutchyshen and Jennifer Hedger came and they paired me beside this big dork. (laughs) And it’s been 15 years now. Luck of the draw we hit it off, laughed at the same things and never had a fight. We know when to stay away, when to pick each other up and we have lasted longer than our first marriages. (laughs)

ATOTK: In 2013 you took an opportunity in the United States with Fox Sports. DO: It was a great experience. A four year deal for an upstart Network. The pitch was a three hour show nightly with Andy Roddick, Jonathan McNabb, Gary Payton, and hosted by Charissa Thompson doing the sports highlights. And we’re thinking this is a disaster but your paying how much?? WHAT?? OK, we’re in. (laughs) That show lasted a year as pitched and then

it was just Jay and myself. So we out lasted all those others plus the bosses as the network brought in new people. When we saw that they probably aren’t going to extend the deal, TSN flew down, gave us an amazing pitch and we said yes, we’d love to come home. Our California adventure had come to an end.

Photo By Karen Irvine

ATOTK: I’m so glad you’re back, I watch everyday. It’s my morning staple. DO: Thank you. When we came back we wanted to make it different because there is a million Sports Centres all day long. So it is more of our Podcast style. We do the Podcast once a week and people can see a different side to us. The reception is phenomenal. The greatest feeling is when families say they watch us while they are getting ready for their day. And the show loops so they see the whole show. Kids to older people comment all the time. Back handed compliments like “I watched you guys growing up” Thanks a lot. (laughs)

ATOTK: Is Producer Tim a real person? DO: He is. And he’s the biggest (bleep) on earth. But he is the perfect foil for us. He tells us when we’ve gone too far and we push back but he stands by his convictions and makes sure we don’t get fired. (laughs) So it’s good to have a non-yes man in place.

ATOTK: Now, you shoot the show at night so what’s your daily routine? DO: Yes, we’re live at midnight. I get up around noon, do stuff around the house, have a great dinner and then take off around 8 o’clock for the show. We’re at work from about 9 until 1 AM and back in our cars. I have bartender hours; it’s a short shift but you still walk around some days like a zombie. In retirement I will be in bed by 8 PM. (laughs)

Jay and Dan from The Jay and Dan Show on SportsCentre

Photo courtesy of Bell Media

ATOTK: Best show you have had? DO: We try to make each show the best show. We’re never really satisfied leaving thinking everything went right. If you had a perfect show what’s the motivation to go back the next day? But some of my favourite shows are the ones we do at the Olympics where they just won Gold and they’re on our show and we bask in their glow.

ATOTK: Worst show you ever had? DO: (laughs) Well, probably at Fox Sports. We were there for 3 hours and I got home and timed how long they showed us on television. One night it was two and a half minutes. So why are we here? What’s the point? You have to understand, there were about 10 Producers working on it, each with their own vision. So that’s never going to work. There were too many cooks in the kitchen. And Jay would say the same where we would leave and never want to go back but we were under contract. But you are doing TV. You’re not digging ditches or graves or going to war and most people would pay to have my complaints. I tried not to voice my complaints because we were pretty lucky and blessed.

ATOTK: Social Media? DO: I’m on Instragram and Twitter @tsnotoole. We also have our Podcast which we’ve been doing for 10 years and it has a nice following. We are doing a Podcast tour coming up so we will be hitting Peterborough or maybe Orono. I have the town hall in Orono right across the

street. That would be great to walk across the street to work. (laughs)

ATOTK: If you could do anything else for a career what would it be? DO: I would have been a Chef. I love cooking. My greatest compliment a month ago came when I was buying these boxes of food that show up with directions in the mail. The kids said “can you just cook your own food, we love your specialty better” and I was like “Thank you, OK, I will”. My specialty is peameal bacon chopped in small cubes, a little butter, BBQ sauce, crisp it up, cook linguine and put it together with olive oil and fresh parmesan cheese on top. My kids love it SO much!

ATOTK: Last shout out to all your friends and fans in the Kawarthas. DO: Can I give you my favourite lunch spot? ATOTK: Of Course. (laughs) DO: My cousin, Nadine, owns The Pin and they have the best burger in town. And great tea.

ATOTK: Thank you so much Dan! Now enjoy your vacation, my friend! DO: I will and thank you for your time! I can’t wait to have the next issue in hand!

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Dan O’Toole Jay and Dan on TSN www.tsn.ca/jay-and-dan