The Ben Mercer Show

At 27 years of age, Ben Mercer is one of the youngest talk show hosts at CFRB. But he's been in Toronto radio for the past five years working the news beat. He gained notoriety from his colleagues for his funny and insightful interviews with perfect strangers on the streets of Toronto. He was du...
Biography

About the show

Coming up this Saturday May 17th on the Ben Mercer Show:

Ben will be on remote live at Woofstock - North America's Largest Festival for Dogs (Distillery District) on Saturday, June 7th! Come say hello and introduce your dog to Ben....

Ben's Blog

Anger over road closures ...
This weekend I listened to a lot of talk radio and have to say, I can't believe how upset people get over summer road closures for special events and construction. The DVP was shut down this weekend
and so was Yonge street for a 10k run (which was tons of fun) on Sunday morning - BIG DEAL. I know it can be mildly annoying to be stuck in traffic, but these delays are completely predictable - they are annual! Every time a road is closed some drivers act like it's the first time it's ever happened; we need to change our expectations on weekend traffic in the city. I agree, there are too many events/festivals in Toronto and we should move them, or consolidate them, but it's not realistic. Nobody wants to have a book festival in the streets of downtown Mississauga - it wouldn't draw a crowd. And nobody wants to tell a bunch of people who want to organize a 5k run to help raise money to battle cancer, that they can't, because it's bad for traffic in the downtown core. I also agree that the DVP and Gardner expressway shouldn' be shut down for an entire weekend because of "routine maintenance" ... why is this happening? Can't they do it another way? They don't shut down the 401 across Canada for a weekend of "routine maintenance" so why can't the city of Toronto do it like the province does with 400 series highways? The answer is ... I don't know, but I can plan for it. My advice is, be aware. Don't drive in or out of the city on the weekends without listening to a 1010 traffic report first. Otherwise you'll likely end up raging in your car about "another stupid event holding up traffic in this city" as I heard one caller put it. What's stupid to me is that he didn't see it coming.

- Ben

Check out these Youtube clips I LOVE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nRNYG_xM2U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzGt4-rLk9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL35da4x0D0&feature=related

Check out my interview with TTC Chair Adam Giambrone

Schedule

Day	Start	End
Saturday	4:00 pm	6:00 pm

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