True Patriot Love - From Broadcasting Icon to Best-Selling Author： A Life in Sports Media ft Jim Lang

00:00:00.000 Well, for more than three decades, Jim Lang has been one of Canada's most recognizable voices in

00:00:05.700 broadcasting. From covering Super Bowls, Stanley Cup finals, and Olympic events to hosting radio

00:00:11.160 and television programs across the country, he's built a reputation as a gifted storyteller and

00:00:16.740 interviewer. But beyond the microphone, Jim has also become one of Canada's most successful

00:00:22.260 co-authors, helping some of the biggest names in sports share their stories through best-selling

00:00:26.920 books his latest project teams him up with legendary broadcaster rod black offering readers

00:00:32.460 a behind the scenes look at a remarkable career in canadian sports media and today we'll talk with

00:00:38.100 jim well here we are jim hi mike what this feels a little awkward only because i spend every day

00:00:48.600 with you pretty much right and uh but it's a real opportunity to sit down as i said in the intro

00:00:54.960 So you are iconic in broadcasting, which is the world I come from.

00:00:59.200 And you've made the crossover into many places.

00:01:02.440 I mean, from radio to television, from television to author.

00:01:06.180 Let's go back a little bit in time.

00:01:08.100 You weren't even born in this country, were you?

00:01:10.600 No, actually, my father was in the Royal Canadian Air Force,

00:01:13.620 and he was stationed in Europe.

00:01:15.200 And in the time of the 60s, NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,

00:01:20.320 had a huge military presence in Europe because there was a real fear

00:01:24.540 that russia the ussr and the warsaw pack were going to walk right through the english channel

00:01:30.680 so i was born in france and then we lived in belgium and germany before i moved to canada

00:01:36.920 and yeah so um that was i mean they had some u.s military bases in europe at the time with over

00:01:43.800 100 000 personnel on one base so you're you're an infant at that point now but you you how do you

00:01:50.200 And where do you, first of all, where do you end up traveling with your dad's military career?

00:01:55.300 We ended up going to CFB Trenton, Ontario.

00:01:58.440 Yeah.

00:01:59.140 And then we, my father was handpicked by a group of other, my dad was an aircraft engine mechanic.

00:02:07.160 And so Canada bought this CP-140 Aurora, which was a maritime surveillance patrol plane.

00:02:15.020 Now, we moved to Burbank, California in the summer of 78.

00:02:18.900 oh really rough jimmy no but the funny thing about it is to build the aircraft which started flying

00:02:24.620 in the early 80s they're still flying is that right yeah the cp-140 war has been upgraded but

00:02:31.440 it's still flying built well ready to go for a long time and then we went to from how long did

00:02:38.100 uh so air force freddy uh as uh he's actually known in our world makes his way down to california

00:02:44.480 how long are you there for we were there a year and a half and then halfway through grade nine

00:02:48.800 we moved to cfb greenwood nova scotia because my dad and all the other personnel there were going

00:02:55.520 to be the instructors for the personnel okay transitioning from the old aircraft to the new

00:03:00.480 aircraft we were there two and a half years then we moved to camp borden which is near barry ontario

00:03:06.640 and then uh my dad's final posting with downs view so he's right here in toronto right and then they

00:03:12.960 My parents ended up retiring to St. Catharines

00:03:15.900 and ended up at a singer's home in Nova Scotia.

00:03:18.660 So along the way in all my journey,

00:03:21.220 I thought about writing,

00:03:23.200 but I never took any formal writing

00:03:24.820 because I thought, well,

00:03:26.020 because I went to the radio stream at Humber College.

00:03:28.720 Yes, okay.

00:03:29.060 That's, I think, where we pick up our connection

00:03:31.420 is Humber College here in Toronto,

00:03:33.480 which had a vibrant radio program at the time.

00:03:35.800 Yes, started in 72.

00:03:37.580 And some great names made their way through that program

00:03:40.140 as teachers and as students

00:03:41.760 and came out the other side of some of the broadcasters that you know and love today.

00:03:45.540 What happened was, over my journey in broadcasting, in radio and television,

00:03:51.280 I ended up at Rogers Sportsnet.

00:03:53.580 And a few years into it, they started their website.

00:03:57.980 And they realized, up until when they started,

00:04:01.640 they were just taking CP and AP wire copy.

00:04:05.080 They had no, they said, the bosses said,

00:04:07.940 well you need some original canadian content yeah like everything else in canada and they asked me

00:04:13.400 in 03 would i be interested in writing some blogs i go well i haven't written much but i'll try

00:04:18.600 so i started really small um and then started doing more and more then after about 10 years

00:04:24.540 i was writing longer and longer and became a more of my work routine now i wasn't making any extra

00:04:31.240 money but i really got into it and ian mendes who i used to work with is now with the ottawa

00:04:37.400 senators had written a book and his agent was always looking for new writers he suggested me

00:04:44.040 and brian wood he's still my agent to this day my literary agent and then we um we started

00:04:50.920 exploring uh book options and the first thing i i did a basically a 25 000 word ebook we shopped it

00:04:58.920 around to publishers they didn't want it so they we published it as an ebook and then we used that

00:05:04.280 as a basically like a portfolio right here's what i can do yeah this is what i can do correct and

00:05:10.520 when did when did that pick up for you you're at sportsnet at the time uh and what are you doing

00:05:15.320 on the air at sportsnet well you're also doing this i'm anchoring and reporting i'm traveling

00:05:19.520 around i'm and so what happened was when you hold on i want to illustrate this for one second you

00:05:24.900 know a lot of broadcasters out there they they go and they do their broadcast work and you know they

00:05:30.180 go to black uh as uh as they cut to black yep they go home they're in their car you know uh 30

00:05:36.480 seconds later and this is i want to point this out as we get to know you a little bit because i mean

00:05:41.120 i i know that i can dig a little deeper on you and people will get an idea you are the least

00:05:47.980 lazy broadcaster i've met in my life uh you will do a morning show for radio you will then uh show

00:05:54.900 up here for example and do two interviews in a day go home continue writing on your next book

00:06:00.380 yeah and be there at the radio station the next morning for 5 a.m 5 30 in the morning so this is

00:06:06.420 this is not your typical life and and back at sportsnet there you are anchoring doing coverage

00:06:12.380 traveling and still this new medium of blogging essentially yes correct uh you start to embrace

00:06:18.900 as a writer almost right away when they ask you to do it um this became a gradual thing but it's

00:06:25.940 kind of your personality jim to if i can do it and i have the energy to do it i will do it but

00:06:31.780 not only will i do it i will do it as the best i can which i think is admirable it's what i like

00:06:36.820 about you as a friend frankly but i think it's what's also helped you make these transitions you

00:06:41.620 you you start in radio where did you where did your radio career start well it started at uh

00:06:45.540 ckbb and barry doing the all night show well all right yeah what were you guys playing then it was

00:06:52.520 um it was just like a top 40 and then they'd have some different music and it and it was it was a

00:07:00.360 full service community station they had an oldie show uh one hour we would do a top 10 countdown

00:07:06.520 and stuff like that and it was my introduction to canadian radio that was back in 87 88 why is it we

00:07:13.880 all look at our first radio job and we all kind of grimace and and uh and laugh a little bit i

00:07:18.660 my first station was the can ckan i worked at the can i've heard of that where was that in your

00:07:25.200 hometown buddy new market that's right 1280 but yeah so you know you start out you start out there

00:07:30.780 and how do you uh how do you get out of barry what happened was um after about a year and a half

00:07:36.860 i was living i had to like i was only making 11 000 a year and so i i couldn't afford to live my

00:07:45.760 own yet so the typical canadian radio gotcha and i was living at home my dad got transferred to camp

00:07:52.660 downsview from cp borden to cp downsview and i thought my car at the time would not make the

00:07:59.280 drive from downsview to barry in the winter like i'll die driving so i said to work if i can get

00:08:05.420 2 000 more a year if you can bump my salary to 13 000 i figure out a way to live my own

00:08:11.740 and they said yeah we can't do that yeah right so um so i i had to put my radio career on pause

00:08:19.260 and i worked different jobs and uh for a couple years and then i got laid off at a job and given

00:08:27.820 unemployment and i went to a place i had done an internship and i said look i have unemployment

00:08:35.340 i will work seven days a week don't have to pay me i don't care and so i did that for eight months

00:08:41.720 for no money what where was that at q107 and i did everything i i was the bear the bear mascot

00:08:48.000 jim that's a really admirable thing on your resume yeah so i was they had a station like a

00:08:53.600 a big it was a big uh like you see in the amusement park a bear yeah and they had two

00:08:58.840 stations an am and an fm and they would change the t-shirts depending on the what station event

00:09:03.680 and i would be like you know like wave to you know wave to the kids and you know like walk around and

00:09:08.760 the first couple times i was the bear mascot it was outside it wasn't so bad but the next time

00:09:14.360 was in a port credit mall mississauga and don cherry's grapevine used to have this irish

00:09:21.440 canadian guy named jimmy loftus who was the bartender and he would tell a tall tale and he

00:09:27.180 was hosting a saint patrick's day event in this mall and they had me go there well the heat the

00:09:32.260 mall heat i when i took the the head off afterwards i was like it was like five rounds with mike tyson

00:09:39.460 i was like i could barely like i i don't know how they do it at orlando at disney uh i can't wait

00:09:45.200 for the ai thumb that we pull up for this episode of you and your mascot suit with the smoke hanging

00:09:50.480 out of your mouth okay so now you're at q107 for a period of time how do you end up in the

00:09:54.200 i'm sorry i'm taking you right through the career here but i think it's fascinating for people to

00:09:58.240 know how you end up an author.

True Patriot Love - June 23, 2026

From Broadcasting Icon to Best-Selling Author： A Life in Sports Media ft Jim Lang

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