Hi folks. This is a post about a sad event which had happened 10 years ago today. Like when Freddie died, I remember exactly where I was when I had heard the news I am about to talk about below.
10 years ago today, rock radio in Southern Ontario got a little less fun. At about noon on that day, I had heard the tragic news that a rock radio icon in Southern Ontario had unfortunately passed on too soon. If the name Iron Mike Bensson rings a bell, that’s who I’m talking about and every year, I think about him and everything he did on the air, to make us listeners and the people whom he worked with laugh. Mike (whose real name was Mike Miller) encouraged you to call him a funny name and he had a few names of his own, in his box of tricks. If you have ever heard him on 103.3 The Fox in Bufalo, he was the same back then too, before moving his act to St Catharines in 1995 at 97.7 HTZFM, where he worked until his last broadcast in July 2013. By the way, he got the name Mike Bensson from his father named Ben, as Mike was Ben’s son.
I met him a few times when picking up a prise, or just going to the station to be a part of the fun of the morning show, when he would sometimes broadcast outside the studio. He had worked in both the afternoons and the mornings and during both shifts he did a segment called The Teaser. The idea was to guess how 3 songs connected and some days it was really easy. For example: once I won when the connection was that all 3 songs appeared on the bands respective debut albums. Once he played 3 songs from bands from Seattle and someone had figgured it out 2 songs in. Sometimes, he would make it hard and it would take as long as half an hour, before someone would get the correct answer.
Also, on September 11th 2001, he wasn’t able to get across the border, as he lived in Western New York and this also shows his dedication to the listenership. He drove to and from work and he only missed shifts if he was either sick or on vacation. September 11th was the exception to this and it was totally understandable.
He was always nice to me, as everyone at 97.7 HTZFM has been so far. I remember when I went to the station in September 2004, just to give him a welcome card, as he had just been moved to doing mornings. I would send him a birthday card every year, including 2013 and I don’t know if he ever got it. By the way, his birthday was October 17th and he was 60 when he died.
In the fall of 2012, it was announced that Mike had cancer and yes, it was oesophageal cancer and a year or so earlier, he had moved back to doing the afternoon drive after 7 years in the morning. I had actually forgotten about the announcement until it was more than a week after Mike’s last shift during the summer of 2013. By that time, it was all about The Simpsons for me and if I remember correctly, Mike did use a Homer clip during The Teaser, before he signed off for the last time. However, the last time his voice was heard on air was on his 60th birthday and he sounded as healthy as he always did and in less than a month, Mike was gone.
I remember the day I found out that Mike had passed, when an announcement that something major had happened would be made at noon on 97.7 HTZFM. It was then, that both my friends Kristy Knite and Paul Morris announced Mike’s passing, of oesophageal cancer. He had gone at around 7:00 AM that morning and to say it was sad, was an understatement. When I was more active on Twitter (now X) it exploded, with comments from all sorts of listeners, including myself, expressing our grief over what had been told to us. It went on for most of the day, meaning the broadcast and the tweets and I couldn’t focus on anything else but this for the rest of the day.
About 8 days later, 97.7 HTZFM did an on-air memorial tribute to Mike, with all of his past co-workers at HTZ past and present, along with his friends who worked at other radio stations with him. For example: if you live in Detroit and you listen to WRIF, you know that the voice you hear in the afternoons on week days is Meltdown, with whom Mike had also worked with at 103.3 The Fox in buffalo. By the way, Meltdown has a podcast called Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown Podcast, where he simply interviews our favourite rock stars, from past and present. Anyway, the tribute to Mike was quite moving and I had told that to my friend Paul Morris and unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the party for Mike, which was held soon after it.
For some reason one of the songs being played in rotation around this time was Say Hello To Heaven by Temple Of The Dog. I don’t know if playing the Temple Of The Dog track was a premonition or not, but it had certainly seemed odd. Then again, it could have also been a coincidence, but I believe that a shoe was about to drop and it wasn’t going to be good either. Obviously, on November 7 2013, we learned what it was and now, 10 years later I and others still miss Mike and I assume, we all think about him every day.
Unfortunately, not much stands out about Mike when it came to Queen, except during his early days in the 90s, after playing Fat Bottomed Girls (the album version) and he was actually honest, and saying that he had played it from the 1992 Greatest Hits album and not from the Jazz CD. The only new music from Queen he ever played was Too Much Love Will Kill You and that was only on a program called Music Notes, also with Kristy Knite. Needless to say, it didn’t go over well with listeners and despite how much of a Queen fan I am, I didn’t feel angry about how underwhelming the response was. After all, HTZ were in the habit of playing up-beat songs and hardly any ballads. When it came to Queen, the only song like that which was played for a long time was Boh Rhap and it’s obvious why that is. Anyway, Mike did say that listening to Made In Heaven did make him sad.Sadly, that is the only Queen moment which stands out with Mike.
I should talk about 97.7 HTZFM for a moment, in that they have a habit of not playing the album versions of songs, rather single edits despite the fact that they were a rock station, playing rock bands and not top 40 music. They even do sweeps into the next song like a top 40 station and that has always annoyed me, until I realized that they wanna play as much music as they can throughout the hour so they can play around and entertain. Fair enough, but this brings up the fact that they used to play the single version of Fat Bottomed Girls for the longest time, until the 1992 Greatest Hits album came out and right now, they play the radio edit of Somebody To Love, with the album version ending.
I will mention one more thing about Mike that made him such an enduring part of my life and those of us who knew or listened to him on the radio. As I said earlier, he encouraged you to call him a silly name and it was all in fun and not for trash talk. Some of the names bordered on scatological humour and some names were just playing fun. Also, I will leave you with his memorable line he would always say at the end of his broadcasts. “Stay off the pipe and don’t forget to wipe… AMF.” He was certainly someone you couldn’t get mad at, even if you tried. I never did and never was. Thanks Mike and we miss you, every damn day.
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