On August 30, 2005, I sat down with George at a really cute little Italian resaurant called Terroni on Queen St. in Toronto for lunch, to ask him a few questions. Some were my own and some, surfers sent in. It was a great day, he is a really down to earth, intelligent and nice guy!

Thanks to George and his managment for taking the time to do the interview, thanks to everyone who sent in questions, thanks to my boss Cindy C. for giving me the day off work at the last minute, thanks to Mike L. for lending me his tape recorder, and thanks to Billy L. and Cindy H. for helping me edit the questions and answers.

Click here to see a handwritten copy of some of George's favorite things. Scroll down for the interview.

Enjoy!

Ophelia: Walk me through a day in the life of George.

George: Let's see... I get up around 7 am, somedays 6:30, somedays 8, and I lie in bed and I can't believe I'm up that early, and I hate it. I listen to the radio in the morning if there's a sports station on. I get up, put my head under a tap, brush my teeth, and within five minutes of getting up, not even five minutes, maybe three minutes, I'm on a motorcycle and I'm straight to work. I walk into a convenience store around the corner and I buy a Gura, which is an energy drink from Montreal, I buy that and I go into the office and work all day on The Hour, which includes a meeting in the morning, which is a general story meeting. We leave that certain meeting and then myself and the other producers who sit in there, we start to lay the show out. So we take all the ideas from the story meeting, which is about twenty people. Then a small group of four take those story ideas and decide on the ones we want to do, and we put them on a big board, we plan the show out, then we go out and we start on doing reading, the researching, or just working on the show in general. So it's either working on that show, that night, a show a couple days down the road, or the show in general. I get something to eat around 3 pm in the afternoon, my first meal. I'm usually pretty baked by then. Then back and have another meeting. Basically my day is a series of meetings. What they are is a series of get togethers, So I'm in my office and a couple of guys will come in and a couple of girls will come in and we'll start writing and work on the show. Probably about 6 o'clock I'm really brain dead. I'm so tired I usually only have eaten about a half of a meal cause I'm such an idiot about it. I love to work. I get it going and I just keep going going going going going! Then it's like, oh shit! I have to eat, what happened? I'm on the web all day as well, just reading, listening to music, reading books, moving ahead on other issues, working on a radio show that I do on the side and then by 7 after everything's taken care of, 7-7:15, I walk into the studio and I usually sit down on my chair on the set for about 3 minutes, just calm down or whatever. And then I maybe tape part of a pre-taped interview or whatever and then it's just a mad dash until 8 o'clock. As soon as 8 o'clock rolls by I'm on the air but I don't mind. After 9 pm we go back to our office areas. We usually kind of go over the show, we jot down what works, what we think we want to do tomorrow. 9:30, 10 o'clock, I go home, I sit down on my couch and I watch shows that I taped that night. I usually watch CSI or 24, which I worship. It's a good show. Wednesday night I make sure that whenever I'm done, I go and I play hockey. I suck at hockey. I have not a single athletic bone in my body but I do it anyway. And then I watch TV and I read till about 3 in the morning. Sometimes 2 in the morning, sometimes 4 in the morning. I fall asleep and I get up and do it all over again.

Ophelia: Do you ever get nervous before you have to go on the air?

George: No never. I don't know, maybe I should but I don't. I just, I love it so much. To me the one hour that I'm on the air is a joy. Maybe it's because I've worked in radio for so many years that you know, I hear a song, I play a song, I love a song, or hate the song, which is often the case. Then you come off and it's your moment to talk to people. People would come in The Edge studio and you know, have a conversation, and you get to know people. That's really all I'm out to do, is to make sure that my life is interesting, so this isn't really so much a job. I don't want a job, I just want to fill up all my moments with interesting things and meet interesting people until I die. You can make more money and do less work in a lot of other industries. I just want to enjoy it. I want to lead a kind of surreal life and I get to do some surreal things in this world that my job has allowed my the opportunity to do so that's my day. A long long day far sure.

Ophelia: What do you like to do in your spare time?

George: I like to ride my motorcycle. That's what I love to do, I really do. I watch a lot of TV, a lot of TV. I play hockey as much as I can. I stink so bad. It's not like I'm getting any better. I keep busy. I'm one of those gotta keep busy guys. I don't want to sit there with nothing to do. I go crazy. One of my favorite things to do after work when I come home is to just sit on my couch. I have my laptop here, my television there, I read and I watch TV. That's what I love to do.

Ophelia: If you could live as another person for a day (past or present), who would it be and why?

George: I'd like to be Kurt Cobain on April 4th and instead of killing myself I'd go to a movie. I've never thought of that before, it's good question. I'd say you know what? And that would be 1994 so, I'm gonna go watch Pulp Fiction, you know, I'm gonna go do whatever. That's what I would have done on that day. And I would have taken my daughter [Francis Cobain] with me.

Ophelia: What band (past or present) would you most like to see in concert?

George: Led Zepplin. Or The Clash. I've seen Joe Strummer in concert but never The Clash.

Ophelia: What's your idea of a dream vacation?

George: I'd probably have two. My dream vacation is a motorcycle trip down into Memphis and Mississippi where all the old blues guys are from. If you look on the internet, the Delta Blues area for a Delta map there's a really small small area in Mississippi. Fuckin tiny. You can find it online, who was born there. Which blues people, blues men, were born there. It's a place the size of, smaller than Peterborough maybe and like, 40 of the greatest musicians ever, all from this place. So that would be my dream to drive down there. See where all the blues cats played then probably stop in New Orleans, stop in Austin, you know, go to Las Vegas. I love Las Vegas, So I'd do a motorcycle ride throughout the south. And then over to LA because I love Los Angeles.

Ophelia: Did you have a hero growing up?

George: My uncle and my mother. They were just there and they took care of me. My uncle introduced my to a lot of the things that I love now, politics and music, and my mother as well. But I really liked Public Enemy as a kid I thought Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotton from the Pistols and like, James Hetfield from Metallica, they were all in the early 80s they were very strong voices. Metallica, for all the people who criticize them now, what they don't understand is that Metallica represented a group of people who were completely disconnected from everybody else, there was that young poor kid and there was a whole bunch of them, I was one of them and everyone was one of them. Duran Duran didn't speak to me, at all. I was like, what!? Whatever TV shows were on for kids or young adults at the time didn't fucking do it for me. You watch TV and you watch the music and you think I'm not these kids in the record store. But Metallica and Slayer represented this really extremely disconnected group of people. On the same level so did Public Enemy and so did the Pistols and the Clash. To me those are sort my indirect people that I looked up to. I never wanted to be them but I appreciated the room that they made for people like me. There was a seat at the table for us in their world and I liked that.

Ophelia: Everyone wants to know, are you single?

George: Not right now no. No. I've been with the same girl for a couple of years.

Ophelia: Do you play and instruments?

George: I play piano.

Ophelia: Have you ever been in a band?

George: Ya but I was terrible. I was the singer in the band, I was terrible. We didn't do much but I play piano.
Oh ya. As a kid I wanted to be Roger Daltry. I wanted to be Captain Sensible from The Damned, I really wanted to be Glen Danzig from The Misfits when I was a kid. Or early Def Leppard. I wanted to be an early Def Leppard singer.

Ophelia: When you started broadcasting, were you pressured to change your name?

George: I was in Kelowna they wouldn't let me go by George Stroumboulopoulos. They wanted me to take a fake name, a radio name, and I thought about it but I couldn't come up with one that I liked. But I remember driving up there with a friend of mine, we were trying so many different names. Thought I could be George Stark named after a character in a Stephen King novel [The Dark Half] I thought no that's stupid. I wanted to be George Jefferson but they were never going to go for that. It was after "The Jeffersons". So they just settled with G. The music directors called me by my initials which was good because I didn't have to change me name. When I came back to Toronto, nobody pressure me to change my name. They said be who you are.

Ophelia: Have you ever been nervous about doing an interview with someone?

George: There have been days when I'm anxious. I remember the day I met Joe Strummer I was standing in the courtyard of a church. Black car, black sun glasses, black hair, black everything, black suit. The guy gets out of the car and I look at him and I just had a moment I thought, "It's fucking Joe Strummer!" I looked at my camera guy, his name was Tim, and I'm like, "Tim, It's fucking Joe Strummer!" He's like, "How are ya, how ya doin?" I'm thinking you're in The Clash! You are The Clash! That was cool, I was kind of anxious. But no, I don't know why, I just don't think about it. They're not my uncle, they're not my mother, those are great people. I'm in awe of their presence. So to me everybody else is just somebody else's mother or uncle or brother or son. We're all in the same boat, we're all gonna die in the end. They just happen to be able to die with more money and more glamor. Or less money and more problems, who knows? To me everybody's kind of the same, yet I'm the kind of guy who really respects people who accomplish things. People like Bono and Bob Geldof and Chuck D, Dr. Dre to a certain extent. But never nervous just kind of anxious sometimes. I'm more anxious to get the show on the air. Big shows that we're doing like, big live events, I just want them on because I know that once the camera's on that we're fine. When 9 o'clock comes the show's over. So it doesn't matter, you could sit there for an hour just look at the camera and not say anything and it's going to end. It's not some big indefinite thing. So I just want to get the show going.

Ophelia: What's been the hardest obstacle you've had to overcome so far in your career?

George: Trying to be the kind of broadcaster that I am. I'm very straight forward... I don't have that censor in my brain that kind of, alright time to put it on now. I don't have that, I'm not that guy. I'm the same guy on the air as I am off the air. And sometimes I say the same things, which include swearing. I'm very much the same guy so when you're coming up in this business, some managers try to mold you into being something that you're not. Not all of them do. There's some good managers that recognize you for what you are and they let you be that. I mean it's up to the audience to decide if they like you. The pressure of being the kind of broadcaster that I am is that if I fail, if the audience doesn't respond, they're not responding to us. So it's not like a manager turns you into something... I want you to be like this, and you do it and you see that it didn't work, no no, this is who I am. So if this doesn't work then people don't want to hear me, and that's hard and it's big risk. So the challenge is sometimes convincing managers and going hey dude you know what just let me do what I do, let me push the boundary, push push push. I think shock jocks kept pushing the boundaries when it came to taste, you know with race, gender and orientation and that kind of thing. They made jokes about dicks, they made racist jokes, and jokes about women. That's how jocks tended to push the boundaries but the problem when they did that was they get everyone to push boundaries but they may not challenge them. People like me who want to push the boundaries when it comes to ideas, so nevermind a dick joke and a misogynistic joke, that's not funny to me and I don't laugh. I just go okay, it's a fucking knuckle dragging joke, alright. I think a joke about a kick in the nuts is the funniest joke ever told as well, but want to push boundaries over here. Talk about ideas and politics and what can you say being on a television show. I'm talking about other television shows on other networks and saying they're good. Like pushing all of those safety zones, that's the kind of shit that I like to do and sometimes managers are like, whoa! They think that that is controversial but it's the same kind of controversy as being a racist numb nuts, which I'm not interested in. [Laughs] It's just not my thing.

Ophelia: Now that you've had very successful careers in radio and television, and become a recognizable face to Canadians, what more do you want to accomplish?

George: Well I got a long way to go. A long way to go. I don't think I'm anywhere yet. I've had good luck, I've been very blessed and things have worked out sometimes, that's cool whatever but I don't know how long I'm going to be alive right so I need to keep going. Bob Dylan had this DVD called "Don't Look Back" which is based on this quote from Satchel Page an old Negro Leagues pitcher who used to say "Don't look back because if you do they might be gaining on you". So that's all I can do is just go go go go go. So I have a mountain of work to do still. I want this show to keep going and become stronger. I want it to be a stronger and better show. I think we're pretty good. I think we can certainly improve it in areas and everybody who works on the shows knows that because we just started. So there's that, and you know what I want to do? I want to build a TV and a radio project together. No one's doing that in this country and I don't understand why. It makes no sense to me. It's like fuck you own TV stations and radio stations why don't you put em together on a big massive level. But in Canada sometimes I think a lot of companies function out of necessity and it's not always incredibly forward thinking. Some people are, certainly some people are but some people aren't. And the good companies now, they're share holder companies and I think they care a lot about their share values, a lot of them. That's what I want to do, build a big show like that, that would be fun.

Ophelia: Any plans to pursue your career south of the border?

George: I would for the right show. I've turned down shows there before. I don't want a job. Come do this show, no I don't like that show. I don't care what the money is and I don't care what the deal is if I don't like the show. I wanna go work in England. I think if you make it in England... I think if you make it Canada that's awesome, this is my country, it's where I'm from right. I used to go to the bar right around the corner when I was 19 years old, now it's a Hero Burgers. It was a bar that I went to like 3 nights a week, 12 years, 13 years ago. I like this city. I think that sometimes in the states it's harder to do what I do in the states. They're not necessarily as, you know, patient when it comes to guys like me on the air. CBC took a huge risk to put me on the air. Can you imagine an American news channel doing this kind of show? They'd be puking every day. My boss here tells me that everyday I say something on the air that makes him cringe. And I don't ever think I'm pushing it too much. I do a little bit, no I do lot I guess. So I would go to America but only if it was, the deal, but I'd also want to be up here. It's not about the money, you know, not at all. It's about the project. What did Chris Rock say? "People say life is short, but life is looong if you make the wrong decisions." I'm not interested in that existence.

Ophelia: What made you decide to start giving speeches to students at colleges and universities? What kind of things do you talk about?

George: Somebody called me and asked me if I would do it and I said, come on, nobody's going to want to listen to me. They said no no no people will, and I said really? So I didn't really follow up on it and then they called me again and said, come on the school wants you to come, so I said, alright I'll go. What I do is I talk for ten or twenty minutes, maybe twenty, probably ten, and then I do question and answer. I just let them ask me because I don't want to bore the shit of of them, you know? It's definitely not a motivational speech. I'm not doing any of that, "You can do it!", do whatever you want. I mean of course you can do it, anybody can do it. It's just more what do you want to know about and then I answer questions. What I like about it though is that I get to meet people on a different level. I thought that was cool.

Ophelia: When you visited economically damaged countries, did it ever make you want to change careers and become a full-fledged activist?

George: Not an activist but ya it just makes you kind of think, maybe I could move down here and help them build houses. Emotionally you get it really kicked out of you when you visit those places, and then you always remember that, we get to go home, they don't. But it definitely is challenging everything that you believe.

Ophelia: What do you think of Live 8 and other celebrity endorsed charities?

George: I think you do what you believe in. I remember when the Live 8 thing was kicking off and I was laughing at all the criticism that guys like Bono and Geldof got. People saying rock stars should just rock. Eric Clapton criticized Geldof and Bono for giving Paul Martin a hard time. He said it's a pop stars job to entertain and all that. I thought, what did you do to make the world a better place today? How many lives did you save today? Nothing? Okay then tell you what, if you don't like what they do that's cool, but just shut up! Can you imagine that? What they essentially are doing, these people who criticize the rock stars, they're essentially saying don't help that person. If you don't want to do it, don't feel comfortable, or if you don't trust their intentions or their motivations, fine but just shut up! You can criticize Geldof all you want but sadly there is a whole segment of people who only know about Ethiopia because of Bob Geldof and now only know what goes on in Africa because of Geldof and Bono. People don't know what fair trade is until they see that sign on Chris Martin's hand and then he talks about it. Unfortunately these people who are doing the criticizing, they're not out there fucking helping anybody. They're sitting in there throwing little rocks from their little windows, they're not actually doing anything. It's like, you're not going to make the world a better place. It's the Bob Dylan line... get out of the way if you can't lend a hand because the times they are a changing. That's kind of what I think. I look at all these people and they do good work and I don't care why you do it. I don't care if somebody does it to sell more records. If in the process ten more Spice Girls records get sold but three people get fed, sell 100 Spice Girls records, I don't care. I think it's awesome. Every human being should do what they feel comfortable with. If you don't feel comfortable with it that's cool, but don't shit of somebody else who''s trying to help out.

Ophelia: If you weren't in the broadcasting field, what do you think you'd be doing?

George: I don't know, this is all I know how to do. If I wasn't where I am now, I'd still be doing sports. Sports broadcasting, I really liked that. Sports is about quality, right. When I worked at Much Music there were a lot of these music fashionistas who would always be like, sports are so lame! I would always tell them, what's the best band in the world, and they'd say, Radiohead. Okay, well where's Radiohead on the sales charts compared to Britney Spears, no where, right? Who's your favorite painter? So and so. He didn't get famous until he died and for a hundred years. Who's your favorite musician of all time? Beethoven. The best don't get rewarded in music. But then I'd say, who's the best basketball player in the world? Michael Jordan. Exactly! Is there anybody better than him? No. Exactly! In sports the best can rise to the top. And you know that there is no better hockey player anywhere in the fucking world, than that cat, whoever it is. I watch Much Music and I just look at the videos and I think, are you kidding me? What the hell's that? What does Ashley Simpson have to say? You know that shit she pulled on Saturday Night Live? You watch that episode and then you watch the episode on Nirvana and you think, whoa we're in different worlds! And it's not like, well one's a rock band. I like pop music when it's good. Robbie Williams, performer, belongs there. Usher, belongs there. Ashley Simpson, are you kidding me? But in sports it's like direct result of being the best. The best get rewarded and I kinda like that. But sports have moments where a guy like Dave Andrews can win the Stanley Cup after 25 years. I remember when I was at the Horseshoe one night, which is a bar in Toronto where really indie and new music bands were playing. I remember being there and the Stanley Cup playoffs were on. It was the last game of the season and Ray Bourque was going to win the cup after how many decades in the league. Never won before and I remember the moment when all of these people watching this band kind of stopped and starting watching the TV and then the seconds started to countdown, and they won. When they handed him the cup and he looked at it and he put his head up and he saw his family and he went, this is the only place in the world where you can invest everything you have in it and there's a tangible payoff. There's a goal, to win. I just think that's awesome. So you can actually win. You see Ray Bourque, an old man, crying holding up this thing that he'd been going for for 42 years. I just think that to be fucking cool. There's nothing else that really has that.

Ophelia: Why did you switch from Much Music to CBC?

George: When I went to Much Music, it was to do a show called The New Music. Which I love. When they gave me the RapidFax which became MuchNews, it was a different thing. As time went on, entertainment television in general just became a lot more, you know... Britney Spears chewing gum for sale on Ebay kind of shit. And I just thought no, I don't love this stuff. As a matter of fact I don't like it. I don't want that kind of stuff. I want to talk about music and culture. I found that at Much Music there was less music, way less music. Which is okay, it's just for me and for the stage in my life, it's like I've been there for five years. I had a good run. I liked it and I thought I can't be on the air making fun of everything. CBC offered me a job, I said no, they offered me another one and I said no, a couple other places offered me and I just kind of looked around. Then CBC came back with this offer [The Hour] and I said no. Then they offered me the chance... they assured me that I could do essentially what I wanted to do. I had this producer and her and I got along really well and I just knew it was right. So I'm sitting on a plane going to Sudan with Raine [Maida from Our Lady Peace]. Raine and I were talking about Much. I was just like, dude I don't know what to do anymore. I had to do Fandamonium, which is fine but it's not me. A 32 year old man, at the time, watching 18 year old girls beat themselves up with battons and I thought okay, this is fine. There's nothing wrong with this show, but what am I fucking doing here? [Laughs] I wanted to do more of the election coverage and Much didn't really put me on the election coverage, they put me on Fanamonium. So I was talking to Raine about it and I thought what am I doing? He says, well, what do you want to do? Well I got this thing... so I fucking email my manager from the plane saying okay, we're quitting Much Music, we're going to CBC. Done! Then I went to Africa for two weeks. Disappeared totally. Then I came back and it was done. I realized I wanted more out of my day to day. I really loved my time at Much. Great people at Much. But the programing had gone in a direction, which is fine, that I wasn't necessarily interested in doing anymore. And that was it, very simple. At this time in the world, look at all the shit going on in the world. Being on The Hour is being able to talk about everything plus here's a great movie that I saw and here's a great band that I just heard, here's a cool show that I went to, hey guess what happened in Iraq. I can do all those things on the show. Why wouldn't I take that job?

Ophelia: Do you have any advice for someone who wants to get into the broadcasting business?

George: Find out what you love. Find out what you are. There are a lot of people who say, I just really want to be on TV. I go great, doing what? I wanna be on TV. Okay, well win the lottery. What do you love? You love the weather, be on the weather network. You like music? You like arts? Find a place. To just be on TV, believe me, there's nothing in it. It's kind of an empty... thing. If you're on TV doing something you love and you feel enriched by it, then it's amazing. Then being on television and radio provides you incredible opportunities. Do what you love. You're going to work a million hours. You're going to make no fucking money so it better be for something you enjoy. But if you really do love it, people will tell you, you can't do it, then fuck them, who cares? You're the one who's who's gonna die when you're gonna die. So it's up to you, you know? I remember when I first wanted to get into radio, my Mother was kinda like, "What? What the hell kind of career is radio?" I don't know, but I want to do this. You just gotta do it but be ready to work. Paying your dues doesn't mean working hard for five years. It's a constant on-going thing. When U2 said at the awards show, we're reapplying for the job to be the best rock band in the world. Even U2 has to prove themselves every time out. If you're willing to do that, and you love it, just do it. Be true to yourself because you really can go a long way if people buy into who you are. People sense real. The audience is smart, they understand bull shit. Sometimes they understand and they're okay with it but especially if you do what I do, it would never work if I was bull shitting. Never. I'd be on my ass in a second. And I'd deserve it. That's my advice.

Ophelia: How hands on are you in chosing the stories to cover on The Hour?

George: Very. Absolutely. There's an executive producer, a senior producer, a show producer and me. We pick the stories.

Ophelia: And big changes next season [Season 2]?

George: Yep, new music, new set, a couple of new faces. Kim Dion's not going to be back this year. She's not coming back so I'm looking for another reporter. If you know anybody let me know. Put in on the site. If you wanna come on, let me know. I'm looking for a reporter. We're going to change it a bit. We're not going to blow it up because we like where we're going. I think we're going to continue on the same path where we were going. We're just going to tweak a couple things. I'm excited about the music. It's going to be cool. We're going to try to get bands on. Not to play live, but to play other bands coming out of the commercial break. Playing the new bands from wherever to introduce their song. So there'll be changes for sure.

Ophelia: What is the lockout about and how does it affect you?

George: It's a pain in the ass. It's forty issues that are unresolved as of today still, [August 30], I don't know. Forty issues are a lot. The primary one is what to do with contract employees, the amount of flexibility, who has what. Management wants more than they have, guild says you have enough, or you don't. I don't even know. So that's it. All I know is that I've been locked out. It's ridiculous. I want to do my show. It sucks, it's surreal. I understand that in a democracy things aren't smooth. It's noisy. There are going to be labour and that's why you have guilds and that's why you have management and you have labour laws. This is not new, this happens everywhere. It's been happening for centuries. I get it, that's cool. Let it play itself out, this is just part of the democracy and I'm glad we live in a country where we can have this discussion. I just want it to be fucking over. I want to go back to work. It's a complete and utter pain in the ass. The amount of work that went into getting new people to watch NewsWorld in the first place, most people, they didn't know what our show was. They thought our show was like this straight up news show. It's a lot of work to get them, then to just piss it away being locked out all this fucking time. They just announced today that tomorrow they're going to go back and start meeting again, having talks again. They haven't met in over two weeks, officially. What the fuck is that? 5500 people out on their ass and they're not even meeting? I know there are lots of reasons as to why that is but it's still frustrating for somebody who wants to go back to work. I hope it's over soon. Soon soon soon. I'm going crazy. I wanna do my show. I got to finish my backyard and clean my house and ride my motorcycle a lot. I was going to go to New Orleans this week, that was the plan. I was suppose to be in London but then the bombs went off. I didn't happen to go there, I was suppose to be there. Then I was going to back the week after, when another one happened. Then I decided I was going to go to New Orleans but then they go hit by that hurricane. So I think I should just stay here. It has nothing to do with me, I got bad luck at the moment. I recognize that they have to do this labour stoppage at the moment but it doesn't make it any easier. The amount of work that's going to go into relaunching this show... and we're not going to have the same lead up. I mean we were already back for a week and a half, planning the new season. So I was back, we were working, and then we get locked out. So it's like fuck, we gotta come back and launch the show with no prep time. That's insane. But my bosses are really cool. The management that I deal with at CBC are fantastic. They're committed to the show. Everybody who works there is committed to the show, committed to doing a good job. We just want all this bullshit to be done.