Background What would eventually become the
Humble & Fred show was initiated in 1989 by the incoming
CFNY-FM program director Danny Kingsbury, who—on behalf of the station's new corporate owner
Maclean-Hunter—looked to stabilize CFNY's morning show situation that had been in flux ever since the long-running ''Pete n' Geets'' show went off the air in late 1987. Once ''Pete n' Geets'' left, the vacated morning slot was taken over by the twenty-seven-year-old
MuchMusic VJ Steve Anthony who began on December 14, 1987, by doing the morning drive time show in parallel with his music television job; due to a
non-compete clause in his MuchMusic contract, in order to accept the CFNY offer, he had to obtain MuchMusic's permission. Different professional and personal factors—such as having to fill the beloved morning duo's shoes, choosing to devote more attention to his TV job than his radio gig, as well as facing the radio station's sudden switch to a
Top 40 format—led to Anthony's relatively quick departure from CFNY by the end of 1988. However, due to being adjudged by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to be holding an excessive number of FM radio assets as a result of the takeover, Rogers was ordered to divest the FM radio stations acquired from Selkirk in order to comply with Canada's media ownership concentration laws. Rogers thus placed CFNY in an
escrow while looking for a third party buyer. During 1988, in an attempt to boost the ratings for achieving a better price ahead of the imminent sale spin-off, Marsden was released altogether while CFNY's alternative format playlists began to be injected with Top 40 hits. The Top 40 experiment began quietly over the 1988 Labour Day weekend, leading to acts like
Taylor Dayne,
Martika, and
New Kids on the Block being rotated heavily. Within months, the entire playlist was filled with mainstream acts like
Madonna,
Michael Jackson,
Bon Jovi,
Janet Jackson, and
George Michael, resulting in angry reaction from CFNY's listeners. The format change was officially announced in December 1988, with alternative music getting relegated to evenings and weekends; Berns resigned his program director duties shortly thereafter, though staying on as DJ. Since it failed to bring in new revenue, in addition to alienating CFNY's loyal listener base, it became apparent that Lumby wasn't willing to move to Toronto while Glassman called Kingsbury back to express interest in coming over by himself. Soon after, the deal was made. Simultaneously, the morning show setup was also dismantled, with Turner being fired and replaced with a temporary host alongside Patterson. With the new Blackadar-installed management—general manager Vince DiMaggio and program director Stewart Meyers—CFNY responded to the commercial success of
grunge; with emerging bands like
Nirvana,
Pearl Jam, and
Soundgarden dominating the charts, the station decided to focus its alternative format on the American acts from this musical genre, along with a rebrand to "CFNY 102.1 The Leading Edge". The format change was accompanied with a large reduction in staff, either through resignations or layoffs, including departures of some well known on-air personalities such as
Chris Sheppard, Lee Carter, and Dani Elwell. Dissatisfied with the changes at the station, Elwell famously resigned on the air in August 1992 followed by reading out her resume, while Carter wrote a scathing rebuke of the station's new direction from an insider's perspective that was published by a Toronto alternative weekly newspaper. His return was facilitated by Patterson, who had survived the layoffs, as well as the new general manager DiMaggio and program director Meyers, who sold Glassman on the idea of a new format despite him not originally being interested in going back.
Humble & Fred was named the best morning show in Canada in early 1997, an award given out by the
Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Though never guest intensive, the show's increased profile brought more promotional guest segments with actors and musicians plugging projects aimed at the younger demographic, either via in-studio appearances or phone-ins. One such phone-in during February 1997 with venerable Canadian stage actor
Al Waxman of the
King of Kensington fame — whose thoroughly uncooperative attitude quickly devolved the conversation into an uncomfortable and awkward exchange — gained long-term notoriety on the show with both hosts often bringing it up in years to come. most players on the city's radio market—especially rock format stations aiming their content at young male demo—braced themselves for a loss of listeners they were likely to surrender to high-profile and raunchy Stern. Further hurting their cause was the fact Stern kept receiving a steady stream of free promotion through Canadian press and electronic media coverage of the controversy surrounding his arrival to the country—in addition to Toronto's Q107,
The Howard Stern Show was simultaneously broadcast by
Montreal's
CHUM Limited-owned, English-language station
CHOM-FM. Following a huge start ratings-wise along with a shocking one content-wise—featuring
anti-French tirades and insults directed at Canada's
Francophone population—that caused a lot of, mostly negative, press reaction throughout the country, Stern's Toronto numbers on Q107 stabilized, even somewhat sagged, by Christmas 1997. Still, he undeniably managed to establish himself as major player on the city's radio market, taking a significant chunk of
Humble & Fred's audience in the process. In response, CFNY, which by this time was branded as "102.1 The Edge", hired the services of various radio consultants for the purposes of tweaking the show's content in order to better compete against Stern. As a result,
Humble & Fred put together a listener contest consisting of scatological and/or otherwise disgusting tasks put before contestants competing for prizes ranging from $25,000 to a used car. Its popularity spawned a series of such contests on
Humble & Fred throughout the late 1990s. By the June 1998 ratings book,
Humble & Fred managed to recover most of the audience they lost to Stern, regaining their customary 4.7% of the overall market in Toronto after being pushed down to 3.5% the previous fall, when the newly arrived Stern dominated the ratings. In 1998, Mary Ellen Beninger moved on to another station and was replaced by Sandra Plagakis. In 1999, Shaw Communications decided to carve out its media assets—including 102.1 The Edge, Q107, and Talk 640—
into a newly created corporation called
Corus Entertainment. In August 1999, the show sponsored a festival, "Humble & Fred Fest" at Toronto's
Fort York.
Move to AM: Mojo 640 (2001–2003) Humble & Fred remained with "102.1 The Edge" until April 2001, when they were reassigned to
Mojo 640, another Corus Entertainment asset, while being replaced on "The Edge" by
Dean Blundell, who was brought over from the
Windsor market. Their move to Mojo 640 took place as part of its makeover from the old Talk 640, along with a heavily promoted re-launch that included a
call letter change. Now marketed as "Talk Radio for Guys", the Toronto-area
AM station ambitiously set about going after the 25 to 54 male demographic with a whole new on-air lineup that, in addition to
Humble & Fred, included some well-known Toronto radio personalities such as
John Derringer, Maie Pauts,
Scruff Connors, and
Spider Jones, and focused on "talk, sports, health and fitness, career and investment tips, gear, gadgets, cars, and sex". Jumping on the early 2000s
lad culture bandwagon, the station looked to build an audience by catering to consumers of
Maxim and
FHM, high-circulation
men's lifestyle magazines whose content relied on semi-nude women, cars, and sports. That being the case, Mojo's on-air personalities were encouraged to be risque and push the envelope. Initial reviews of
Humble & Fred in the new setting weren't stellar either, with William Burrill, a
Toronto Star columnist who previously collaborated with Humble on ''Ed's Night Party'', feeling that Humble and Fred were much better than the "early Mojo mould of jocks dumbing it down for 'da guys'", further quipping that "putting Humble Howard on the all-guy, sports-oriented radio station is kind of like putting
Wayne Gretzky on a team that plays nothing but hockey's so-called
neutral zone trap". By fall 2001, Corus brought in famous radio executive
John Hayes to become radio division president. Hayes reportedly wasn't a fan of the Mojo concept from the get go. moved to
Mix 99.9, a
hot adult contemporary FM station owned by
Standard Broadcasting, replacing
Carla Collins, who had reportedly decided to leave due to finding it too difficult to continue doing a daily morning radio show alongside her television obligations. John Oakley would eventually become the duo's replacement at the AM station. The
Humble & Fred transfer from Mojo to Mix, one of several high-profile radio morning show changes in the Toronto market during summer 2003, received due coverage in Toronto-based print media including Mix program director Pat Holiday's quote about the duo's move being motivated by their desire "to be in the top echelon of morning shows with numbers and listeners", while Mojo's program director Scott Armstrong stated they left "due to being interested in a music format, which Mojo obviously couldn't offer". They also discussed behind the scenes events during their unsuccessful contract re-negotiations with Corus that dragged throughout late 2002 and the first part of 2003 before Standard came in with its generous offer that they took, as well as Corus' last minute attempt to keep them, which the duo rebuffed having already signed with Standard. thus further interrupting the show's flow. The station gave the duo a big promotional push that most notably included transit poster ads placed prominently on the
Toronto subway. Early into their run on Mix, after they were left without a news reader, the duo managed to lure Judy Croon, a stand-up comedian who also read news, weather, and sports on
CFRB-AM (another Standard Broadcasting asset at the time) over to Mix 99.9 to be the newsreader during
Humble & Fred, as well as the show's third voice. When Patterson was released, there was significant curiosity about the true story behind the occurrence. Glassman was not able to say anything on the air, but he did offer contact information for his personal
BlackBerry and readily invited those curious to contact him for the actual story. After
Steve Anthony filled in on a temporary basis,
Mad Dog and Billie took over the slot on a permanent basis on August 8, 2006. After reuniting for a Christmas show podcast in 2006, their first time on-air together since being separated in August 2005, Glassman and Patterson continued the practice of occasionally reconvening for one-off podcasts. The initial podcasts were recorded at former producer Dan Duran's house, before deciding to do one as a small event on location with special guests and a live audience — their May 2009 podcast at Dominion on Queen pub, celebrating the 20th anniversary of
Humble & Fred going on air with guests
Nick Kypreos and
Tyler Stewart of
Barenaked Ladies. Altogether, eight podcast shows were recorded and released between 2006 and 2010.
The Christmas show tradition One of
Humble & Fred annual traditions on terrestrial radio was its "Gift of Christmas" show. Broadcast live from location, usually a downtown Toronto hospitality establishment, multiple Christmas shows were done from the
Horseshoe Tavern while the last few were held in the Courthouse restaurant. Longtime performers on the Christmas shows included the Doo Wops comedy group, and various members of
Barenaked Ladies. The last Christmas show on terrestrial radio took place without Patterson on December 23, 2005. One year later, when neither Humble nor Fred were on radio anymore, the 17th annual Humble & Fred Christmas Show was held and recorded at former producer Dan Duran's house on December 16, 2006, and subsequently made available from the duo's website as a free podcast. In December 2010, now employed at different radio stations, the duo reconvened to do another Christmas show, this time at the studio of Toronto's
103.9 Proud FM, that was again released as a free podcast.
Re-launch on the internet (2011–present) On October 15, 2011, more than six years removed from the last time they were on the air together (other than the occasional one-off joint podcast in the meantime), Humble and Fred re-launched the daily show, this time distributed online as a
podcast. Their reunion occurred in the wake of both their recent individual dismissals from terrestrial stations—Humble had been let go from his morning show job at
Boom 97.3 in Toronto earlier that year in April 2011, while Fred was released from
Peterborough's
The Wolf 101.5 in July 2011 where he had been working behind the scenes as program director. Now producing daily content in a stripped-down podcasting operation they launched by reportedly investing only
Can$3,500 in equipment with initially no paid employees other than themselves and a business model based on keeping costs low, Humble and Fred stated from the start that they would welcome a return to a corporate-owned commercial radio entity. His work on the show mostly involves selling advertising spots via a personal network of contacts he managed to develop in the business over the years and his compensation is commission based. In January 2013, the duo announced a deal with
Astral Media for a late-night terrestrial radio comedy show, featuring a mix of their new and previously podcasted material. As part of the deal, the duo additionally got to do guest segments on Astral's various properties such as
John Moore's morning show on Newstalk 1010 and
John Tory's afternoon drive time program
Live Drive on the same station. The new late weeknights 12-2 a.m. program—a cleaned up version of their daily 2-hour podcast with profanity taken out and reformatted into four 25-minute bits that can be played with terrestrial station breaks in-between—began airing on January 21, 2013, on Astral's two comedy-format radio stations (
Funny 820 in
Hamilton and
Funny 1410 in
London) as well as on
Newstalk 1010 in
Toronto. Potential expansion via
syndication to other stations was also announced, and within weeks they were added to the
Newstalk 610's (another Astral station, serving
Niagara Region) nightly schedule from 10pm until midnight. By July 2013, Astral was bought by
Bell Media and the arrangement continued under the new ownership.
Expansion to satellite radio: SiriusXM Canada (2013–2018) On May 7, 2013,
Humble & Fred were announced as the new 7 a.m. morning show on
SiriusXM Canada's newly re-branded "
Canada Laughs" channel that had been known as "Laugh Attack" up to that point. They began two days later on May 9 as a two-hour live weekday morning broadcast. The new deal put the duo in a unique position of being on three different platforms every day—first broadcasting their daily 2-hour show live on satellite radio every morning, then making the same content available as a podcast followed by having the altered version of the same content air that night on AM terrestrial radio. Soon after getting on satellite, the show added Eileen Ross (formerly with Rogers Media where Humble and Fred had collaborated with her on promotional material as part of their Rogers deal) as a third on-air voice while her duties also involved booking guests. In late April 2014,
Humble & Fred got into a mini-controversy with Sirius XM show,
Opie and Anthony. The Canadian pair relayed a story on the air about listening to
Opie and
Anthony and not finding them funny. This caused a mainly one-sided mini-brouhaha as Humble and Fred got mentioned on the
O&A panel discussion during the American duo's May 23, 2014 show. As a result, Opie & Anthony's fans (known as "pests") overloaded
Humble & Fred's website and Facebook page. Glassman and Patterson would clear the air later that week by retelling and contextualizing the story with added information. Notably that they had listened to Opie & Anthony during a late 1990s trip to New York City with a radio consultant to monitor other morning radio shows in anticipation of Howard Stern entering the Toronto market. They went on to say that their boss had referred to O&A as "not funny, but fun." The four morning radio hosts made up on
O&A's May 28, 2014 show when Glassman and Patterson called into
O&A to discuss the misunderstanding, morning radio, and the city of Toronto. The show celebrated its 25th anniversary with an event at the Horseshoe Tavern that aired live on SiriusXM Canada starting at 8pm on November 5, 2014, featuring numerous guests, including the newly inaugurated Mayor of Toronto and the duo's former radio colleague
John Tory and
Hockey Night in Canada's recently hired new host
George Stroumboulopoulos. After airing for two and a half years, the nightly AM radio show that came about as part of the content licensing deal with Astral Media was canceled in July 2015, with Toronto's Newstalk 1010 putting
Art Bell's
Midnight in the Desert in the timeslot. In early June 2016, after performing as the show's third voice for three years, Eileen Ross was released. Her exit was announced by co-hosts Humble and Fred midway through the June 6, 2016 show without providing further details beyond labeling it part of the show's "re-positioning". After some negative listener reaction, they further discussed her departure the next day live on air in an 11-minute segment, stating they're doing so despite originally not planning on addressing the reasons they're no longer working with Ross "out of wanting to be discreet, sensitive, and empathetic". Without going into specifics, they further stated that a lot went into the decision, including "personal issues and circumstances" and "their desire to take the show into a slightly different direction by concentrating on some
Humble & Fred hallmarks that involve just Humble and Fred". A continuation of the same type of business arrangement they had previously agreed with SiriusXM Canada, the Funny 820 content-licensing deal also saw the duo carried live—this time on terrestrial radio—without direct monetary compensation, but having their four hourly live reads of podcast sponsor ads aired on an extra platform, and thus potentially increasing their revenue by getting an opportunity to charge more for those spots. The show was also carried by
88.7 The River from
Mount Forest, Ontario in addition to its cut-up segments re-airing during weekends on Newstalk 1010 in Toronto. At the time of joining the Funny 820 morning schedule in 2018, the
Humble & Fred podcast audience reportedly averaged between 12,000 and 15,000 downloads per day. As part of the February 2021 Bell Media layoffs that saw the corporation cut hundreds of radio and television jobs across Canada, Funny 820 informed the duo of its decision to end the
Humble & Fred content-licensing deal, setting April 10, 2021 as the last day the station will carry the show. In response, on February 18, 2021,
Humble & Fred quit the radio station live on air near the end of the show. Concluding that the podcast had gained enough of an audience along with a steady number of sponsors over the years, the duo decided to go on only as a podcasting operation.
Podcast only Beginning February 22, 2021,
Humble & Fred is available only as a podcast for download/streaming through podcast aggregator platforms as well as live on their
Facebook page every morning at 7:30 a.m. EST. The duo simultaneously created a
Patreon account, soliciting monthly donations from their audience. ==Show staff==