Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Greg Brady: Toronto Mike'd #220

Episode Date: February 23, 2017

Mike chats with The Fan 590 morning show host Greg Brady about being bumped from mornings for Dean Blundell, losing his job and coming all the way back with Elliott Price and Hugh Burrill.

Welcome to episode 220 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. And Chef's Plate, delivering delicious and locally sourced farm fresh ingredients and refrigerated kits directly to your door. fresh ingredients, and refrigerated kits directly to your door. I'm Mike from torontomike.com, and joining me this week is Fan 590 Morning Show host Greg Brady. Welcome back, Greg. And this was taped June 10, 2012.

Is that episode 76? By the way, who was episode one? I was thinking that on my drive. I have several observations of my drive here. What was episode one and when was it? Because you've certainly gone from C-listers to A-listers since I was with you last. You really have. So you're an A-lister, is that correct? No, no, no.

Well, now you've regressed again. But who was episode one of the Toronto Mike podcast? The first 30 or so episodes are me and a close friend shooting this shit. Who's the first person you got in here and you're like, wow, cool. Fred Patterson. Fred Patterson. Yeah, of course. I invited him

over to talk about his years at CFNY and he worked for Foster Hewitt on the AM station that recorded in that Brampton house. And I don't know what they call that, Chick FM? Anyway, so Freddie P was first, and then Humble Howard got jealous Freddie P was on, so he had to come on. They have that kind of relationship, don't they?

It's like, if you're having Fred on, I'm on next. And he came in, and then I just started reaching out to some friends I had met through them, actually, like Jeff Merrick and bingo bob and guys like this don't know bingo bob as much as i know jeff merrick bingo is on the air i did not i didn't ask who it was i just tell it no i'm just kidding come on greg and uh and my heavens you've uh yeah you've built like an empire here um with getting people i know bob mckenzie's in next week that's a big one right that's a great yeah is that the's the, is that bigger name than Ron McLean? Like, if you had, is that, or no?

Like, I'm trying to think who's the biggest name. Well, I feel like, obviously if you love hockey and hockey only, who's better than Bob? If Ron is, Ron's a little, that CBC thing, as you know, still gets you eyeballs and knowledge that, you know, you're not sure, you know,

you'd get anywhere else, I suppose. It's not like Bob's on cable and it's hard to find him, but the CBC thing is pretty damn remarkable. I'm envious of your Toronto Ness because growing up in London, you just heard of these guys, and I never watched a second of City TV until they added it to our sort of cable. I don't think I watched it until I was 15 years old. I missed a lot of good TV

on City. You missed a lot of Mark Daly. Well, I knew I got to meet Mark one time when he was in London somewhere. Someone pointed him out to me, and I was in journalism school at the time, and I went up and said hi to him. And as you know, sometimes people are happy to see you,

and he was. He was a super... You know this. Sometimes the guys you think are wonderful in the industry aren't, and vice versa. So you've got to go up and meet them to be sure. Although most of the assholes will not accept my invitation to the basement. Some of the assholes have. Some have, Greg.

Some have. We'll name names later. Oh, yeah. Sure. And by the way, Mark Daly introducing late great movies. Like when I was a young man, if I saw on City TV,

they were going to air Fast Times at Ridgemont High, for example. Which they did every second Thursday. Right. And then Private School with Betsy Russell.

But you know the movies where there's going to be breasts, okay? And you know you're going to get Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool. So, you know, Mark Daly was like're going to get, you know, you're going to get Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool. So, you know, Mark Daly was like, you know, you'd hear, you know, coming up next,

the late great movies, Fast Times at Richmond High, and then you know what you're in for back then. This worries Mrs. Brady, because I have an 11-year-old just turned son and an 8-year-old son. And I thought about breasts when I was 11 a fair bit, and I don't think he thinks of them as much as I do because I feel like I'd know about it,

but he may be, as you know, boys hide things at a young and oldish age, and I don't know if I'm... I do scour the room occasionally. I am that dad. I do look out for things, but I haven't... I think he's taken his time developing... He's still playing the card that girls are yucky, Mike. That's still for things, but I haven't. I think he's taking his time. He's still playing the card that girls are yucky.

That's still very young. Which they aren't. That's still young, but I have a 15-year-old boy, and I know exactly what I was up to at 15. And I don't... It's funny how they can hide things, because I talk to him in a way I was never talked to by my father. So this is like

we're friends. We talk about everything. But I'm always interested in what he's up to. I don't think he's up to what I was up to. I think he's still... I saw a story the other day that said Playboy is re-adding nudity to the magazines. And I'm like, I don't think I've seen a Playboy since 1989, and I didn't know nudity went away.

That's right. And I would just assume that the internet has changed how people's value or lack thereof of those types of magazines. But you know you'd go over to somebody's friend's house when you're 13 and you're like, and the guy's like, guess what my dad has? And you're going, I don't, you know.

And sometimes it'd be too much. It was always, yeah. Or you found them in like the ravine. I used to find like bags of like porno them in the ravine. I used to find bags of, like, porno bags in the ravine, like, in trees. I feel like the SI swimsuit issue was hidden at different places around my house by my

parents, and then later after I discovered it, I'd hide it on them. It was just a giant game of capture the flag. Kathy Ireland. Kathy Ireland, Elle McPherson, that era. I'm a little young for the Cheryl Teague's era. Let's say that. This is not what you brought me here to discuss.

Real briefly off the top is that, you know, we forget Greg Brady, the character Greg Brady, was a singer. Like, this is the early days. Greg Brady singing. Yeah, this is him. On the show, he was a singer, okay? He was in, like, a band or something. So this is the early Greg Brady.

Pretty good, right? He's got singer. Okay. He was in like a band or something. So this is the early Greg Brady. Pretty good, right? He's got some chops there. So I'll bring that down and play the more like the later Greg Brady. It's important stuff here. So that's literally Barry Williams. In character. So that would be the character Greg Brady singing on the show. You should know this stuff.

Did the show resonate with you? It didn't really with me. My, my, I'd never, and I didn't get the name thing terribly. My parents named me Gregory. Right. August before that show started. And, but then I'll tell you what happened. When the movies came out with Gary Cole and Shelley Long,

that was troublesome in the mid-20s because then everyone's like, ah. Was it mid-90s, was it? Yeah, mid-90s. It was the mid-20s. I don't know. Listen, I've had a great time here. I've got to run. Greg, no.

This has been super. I want to tell everybody listening that if they want the – I just did this recently with another guest. But if you want the A to Z of Greg Brady, that was covered in episode 76. And you were a rarity because you're a guest that my buddy Elvis arranged. Because you had a Western connection or no?

He was at the campus radio station. Many famous people have passed through the hallways of CHRW. One, Dan Shulman. Wow. Elliot Friedman. Kevin Newman. I want to say Christine Simpson, but I'm not 100% sure about Chris. And then me. So you see, again,

descending order of importance, really. Episode 76 was early days for this podcast. There was no beer, for example. You left beerless from that show. I did. I came drunk. And thus, a lot of the answers I gave were the words were slurred

and the memories were a little bit fuzzy. But you know, a lot has happened. I've thought often in the last 12 months about a potential reunion with you and what I'd have to say and what I'd have to mention. And I have things. I will extract things from you. I will do. That and what I'd have to say and what I'd have to mention. And I have things.

I will extract things from you. I will do. That's what I do. I get you into a comforting lull. Like, you get relaxed, and then I just pounce. I feel like it's the Roy Firestone thing where you're trying to—I've heard you do this recently, where you try and get the guest to tear up. Like, no one's teared up.

Like, you're trying to get Rod Tidwell, the Cuba Goating Jr. character, to cry, but you don't have a faxed contract. I already have my contract in the last two weeks, so you can't tell me there's a faxed contract offer coming in, unless it's an independent podcast. I just search for real talk. That's all I search for. By the way, here's a little trivia for you.

You're one of two guests that Elvis actually set up. So your episode 76 was an Elvis setup. He set up a second guest in the 220 episodes he's done too. Do you want to guess who the second guest was? No, I mean, I don't know. Fun trivia? I don't have a clue. You'll tell me. David Alter.

Okay, David Alter. Now with The Athletic, I believe. Correct. Are you subscribed? I am about to, believe it or not. Can you expense that? Can you expense that? I may consider such a thing, but the yearly option is good.

I saw The Athletic just started in Cleveland. So, I mean, I'm a fan of journalism and broadcasting and radio. And I think, as you know, people want to get crap for free. I know you had a guest yesterday that talked crap for free. That was not the name of the podcast, crapforfree.com. To be decided yeah but yeah it's it's a it's a real battle um in this industry now to get people to to pay to play no question it's like you buy the smartphone for 600 bucks and you don't think twice but if that app is 99 cents you're like forget this i'm out have you noticed that mentality

yeah i don't know what to call it because you're right. People aren't being frugal or cheap about it, because they spend other stuff other ways. It's sort of like donating to charity. Well, you'll spend $4 on a coffee at Starbucks, but the notion of spending that much for a month worth of good sports journalism is like, forget that. I'll find it somewhere else. Very true.

And by the way, I was going to say, there's something here. You mentioned yesterday's guest. So can I ask if you've listened to the Mike Richards episode? I devoured it. I mean, I'm a fan of radio and local stuff in general. This is what I say about Mike. Mike and I don't know each other, and we've never met. But I'm sure we have plenty of mutual friends.

And I'm telling you, for what the guy's been through, like people said, oh, you got some bad news last year when you left the fan. I'm like, no, bad news is cancer, as you know, and I know. And Mike Richards knows. And Mike Richards certainly knows. So that's not, you know, resetting your career, readjusting what you're doing has a lot of downs. I don't mind talking about some of the downs with the last year, but, um, but no bad news is bad health. And, uh, and I wish Mike the absolute best, um, in a new endeavor. I was staring, you know, you and I, uh, talked a few times in the last 12 months and, um, and anybody who's finds themselves a free agent of sorts has to consider that endeavor that you got to go at independent, see what's there, see what your brand brings you, see what, what kind of audience you, whether the audience is willing to stick with you.

I mean, that's, to get back to Mike in a sec, that's always the great debate about, take a legendary broadcaster, and now I'm proud to say a coworker again like Bob McCown. People will look and say, with Bob at 4 o'clock, how many are just listening to the fan because it's 4 o'clock, and how many are Bob? And I'd say there's a good number of both. It's always up for bosses to say, well, it's 80 bob and 20 like the slot and like the station and then if it skews too far it's sort of like the what the tonight show was it's like are you watching because you've always watched the tonight show or is the host really doing it for

you this is the great sports media question that people ponder is if you took bob and put him on the same time slot at 10.50, would it be an audience similar? Because it's a great debate. It's a great debate. And I think Bob would engage in the debate and most people would to say the same thing. But where is Mike's concern? I think it's exciting to be trying something new. His health is number one. I don't think he does things like I do things and I don't do things like he, and it's sort of like two, maybe even two baseball players or two quarterbacks with totally different styles, but you go, wow. I like, I respect the other guy and he, and we were against each other

in that slot for four years. So you just want to, you just want to bring as many people to the, to the conversation and, and Hey, you know, before we had two sports stations in the city or two sports shows, cause as you recall, um we had two sports stations in the city or two sports shows, cause as you recall, um, I was on a sports show with Bill Waters going up against Bob McCann. So I know what attacking that giant of a time slot and the heritage station is you got to try everything. You just have to try everything and you'll still have, um, a good, he'll feel, still feel like more like a failure than a success. But, um, I hope Mike does really well. a good, it'll still feel like more like a failure than a success, but

I hope Mike does really well. It's, we all may end up there eventually. Like, this may be the way forward in five to ten years, depending on what happens with radio. No, I'm still a huge believer in radio, but Mike's getting out in front of this and has the time and wherewithal to do it, and I hope it works.

He, well, first of all, you and Mike Richards have something in common after that last episode which is you both have attacked tsn radio in your past well i can still smell the the hand grenades in here from yesterday i don't think i the napalm i was smelling napalm coming down the stairs i don't i wouldn't i won't quote you and i won't play the clip uh not that i have it but i won't play the clip but uh you know i challenge you to find The people listening to this know about you went off on TSN radio one day. Is that

something you learned from? Would you do that again? Any regrets having done that? Let me explain the day of it happening. Now people won't, I think sometimes, and this happens in sports, sometimes there's an explanation and not an excuse. So I'll give an explanation. I don't want it to sound

like an excuse. I had something happen that morning, not domestically or anything. And I definitely arrived to work in a rough mood. The day before, I want to say, was the day Alex Anthopoulos announced he wasn't coming back to the Blue Jays. So you can imagine there was nobody. You're disappointed the Jays lost to the royals you're disappointed the royals went on to win the world series then the hero that you know levitated to and from work alex anthopolis along with his 11 apostles 12 12 apostles i'm thinking maybe i'm making paul beaston an honorary apostle but basically beaston's leaving Alex is leaving, who are these idiots from Cleveland coming in? But at that day, there were an awful lot of cheap shots, and maybe fairly to them, thrown at Rodgers. Like, Rodgers this, Rodgers that. of Paul leaving, that there was a lot of business things they wanted to bring Mark Shapiro in.

You saw the news yesterday about the renovated stadium. Mark can get that done. Like Tom Anselm, he just got a job with Ottawa. What's his main job? Get a downtown stadium. He's good at that. He helped with the ACC. So I meant in a, how would I put it?

I meant in a way, and I made a big mistake because I definitely felt like i i put something out there that could easily have been misunderstood um miscalculated but it was my mistake and and then it's also as you know your your kids ever play broken telephone like there's eight of them at a table and you and the eighth thing you you whisper something to somebody like uh the leafs are gonna win the cup and by the eighth time around, it's like, farts and jerks, and so the words change. But my point in saying that was, content-wise, they're happy to take runs at us today, but Bell has suffered because the Blue Jays have done well. So this is a good day for them when people are kicking at the Blue Jays

and kicking at the company I work for. And I think I did say it in the initial statement. There's really good people at TSN Radio, but especially because the Blue Jays the last two years and their success and what they mean to people, they're having a tough time getting off the ground. And I don't even like the phrase hot garbage, but I did use it. And that's not, and I was, I said sorry on the show the next day, and I said, this is not representative of how I feel,

because I have friends there. And you can imagine there were texts and phone calls from me to them preemptively saying, you might hear about this, and I made a mistake, but I want you to know how I feel about it. might hear about this right and i made a mistake but i want you to know how i feel about it so um i don't think it's no i've never been afraid to acknowledge um the competition if i was over at tsn i might be i might be saying things that i think we're doing well that maybe or that's easier for us to do than rogers like they all you know how they all put out releases after trade deadline or july 1 saying we had this many viewers and the other station, the other network had this many viewers.

Yes. Radio kind of, in the States, as you know, rivalries really develop between shows and personalities. And none of us have really engaged in that. I have been far from the only one to reference it. But yeah, I went, no question, I went too far that day. I do think people asked me in the last year, did that hurt you from maybe working at TSN?

And to the best of my knowledge, no. And I had talks, and like I said, I've got, I'd say I've got just as many friends over working in agent court and longtime friends, I hope lifelong friends, as I do at Rogers. But to be able to go back to Rogers is awesome, and it was the right thing for me. Hold that thought. I have follow-up questions, but first—

Dwelling on the negative as always, Mike. Well, this is a positive story. This has a happy ending. This story that we're going to tell today has a very happy ending for Greg Brady. Good things happen to you. So let's get there. But first, I want to urge people to go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike and help crowdfund this endeavor.

Yesterday they talked about, what does he call them? Richard's Army? He's got like loyalists called Richard's Army. If there's a Brady Army out there, go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike. I should have ordered the Richard's Army to do the same. I'd be rich today. Did you not? I did, but I didn't know

to address them by Richard's Army. Well, you're following in his footsteps and retweeting every single compliment you get. So if you could get just a nickel for that alone, you're in business. I do. I'm not as good at it as other people, but I understand it needs to be done. I'm not very good at it.

I had some interesting comments about him and his spin, but we'll get to that. Patreon.com slash Toronto Mike. The beer. I mentioned that last time you were here, I had no beer for you. I have beer for you today. Or a bathroom. No, you do.

You have both. I have both. Or plumbing. Great Lakes Brewery wants you to take that six-pack home with you. Do you drink beer, Greg Brady? Yeah, I'll be not at this hour and not that the alarm clock goes off at 345 again. It's really limited my weekly consumption, but this is great. I passed a, or I was lined up at the traffic light to come on to Islington.

I don't want to reveal your secret lair. Secret new Toronto location. Like people trying to find Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. But there was a Great Lakes Brewery truck right next to me. There you go. So they may have been delivering a batch to you or elsewhere in the neighborhood. Absolutely. That's so fresh.

It just was just brewed probably last week. That doesn't seem like an official slogan. That's just something that you have living. We're working on it. So that beer is yours. I also have meals for you, two meals for you from Chef's Plate. I will send you a link and you're going to pick your two favorite meals and send me a shipping address. If you don't want me to know where you live because you're afraid I'll show up, then you can give me a work address, anything that you want a refrigerated box delivered to.

I understand your security concerns. So Chef's Plate will deliver that. I'm easy to find in the Durham region. Trust me. Everyone else, go to chefsplate.com and use the promo code TORONOMIKE to get your two plates free. And that's from Chef's Plate, the good people there. So after recapping for five minutes

my most regrettable on-air incident in 10 years in Toronto, what else do you have for me? You don't do ads on the Fan 590? You guys don't have sponsors paying your salary? No, no, no, I'm fine with the, I was fine with the ads. I'm done with the ads. No question.

All right, so here. Let's go through this step at a time. Your ratings, when you were doing mornings with Andrew Walker on the Fan 590, your ratings were pretty strong,

I understand. We had a really good spring. I was informed it was a record-breaking spring for men 25 to 54, which is how stuff gets sold. It's how stuff gets bought. It's how the sausage gets made. It's still, no question, the most important demo. And then fall of 14, I think everything was a little soft. And I'm not making excuses for the

teams. We didn't have any help from the teams in the spring of 14. That was the big Leafs collapse when Jonathan Bernier was injured. Yep. In his first year here, they lost 12 of 14 to finish. But our spring was really strong. I guess there was optimism for the Blue Jays. But then by the fall, the Jays did quite poorly,

headed towards the fall, fell out of, that was the year Baltimore ran away with the AL East, inexplicably. And the Leafs, you remember maybe the 14-15 Leafs because that was Shanahan's first year and he was observing, but you still had Carlisle and Nones was still there. And it just,

people were really not into the team, even though they did well in the first four months. They were in a playoff spot. They were well. I remember the whole Simmons analytics debacle, I guess, that Simmons said the analytics was wrong because the Leafs were doing strong and then the Leafs came back. Ah, yes. But there was a lot of Leafs were doing strong, and then the Leafs came back to... Ah, yes. But there was a lot of... You could tell in September and October there wasn't a ton of traction. And we all tuned out by February.

I remember that year, because by February they were unwatchable, and we were all tuned out. And then Peter Horacek took over, and they were even worse. But they got down bad enough to draft Mitch Marner. So talk about happy endings. That number five overall pick goes pretty well

now. But your ratings are fine. So I guess it's Don Collins I believe that's the gentleman who decided... He was my boss. He brought me to the fan in 2010. He brought you there. That's good. But then he moves you to one o'clock so he can bring in Blundell. That is absolutely correct. I had an inkling of the move...

I had an inkling of a move to one early fall because I knew that Tim and Sid a move to one, um, early fall because I knew that Tim and Sid were going to go to television. And that's, that's another wrinkle in the mix of why it was so hard to transition to one o'clock. Um, but Tim and Sid were going to go do a television show and they're still doing it and it's successful. And I, Tim McAuliffe and our friends, I think I know Sid, obviously everyone knows Sid, but, um, it's successful and it's successful. And Tim McAuliffe and I are friends. I think I know Sid, obviously. Everybody knows Sid. But it's successful.

And it's going to keep going and hopefully going and going for them. But 1 o'clock opened up. Dean was, I guess, for the lack of a better term, a free agent. But I didn't think Dean was the move. I knew I might be moving to one and thought Andrew would stay with somebody else. And I will say this. After five years, when I was first sort thought Andrew would stay with somebody else. And I will say this, after five years and when I was first sort of pitched it, I don't know that I had to agree with it, but it felt like a pitch. It felt like a feeling out process. Like, would you be

interested in this? We might do it anyway, but how'd you feel about it? Because this is the one thing I'd say, a lot of things say, but the one thing about Don is Don and I had a very close relationship and the happiness of your key employees is important you know that everyone can say i work for the man and then i'm a commodity but you're you'll get more productivity with happy employees look at europe you know you travel to europe i travel to europe them now to vacation and free college to it so many holidays so many happy people in europe yes so so whereas we, you know, if we put our nose to the grindstone,

it gets more difficult. So I had a feeling I'd moved to one. I didn't have a clue until a few weeks before, maybe a few days before an announcement about it that Dean Blundell would take over a morning show. And I, as a disclaimer, I've known Dean for 19 years. I wrote about this on a Facebook post a couple of weeks ago. He was doing, he was DJing on a

middle of the road, like a adult contemporary station. And I was doing news in Windsor and we were kind of the same age and probably, you know, uh, just getting cut in our teeth. And I just knew he'd be a star. He was, he was, he took over the 89 next morning show. It's weird how he takes over morning shows. No way. Anyway, he took over the 89 next morning show it's weird how he takes over morning shows no anyway he took over the 89 next morning show um about like six months later like his star what he was going to be in the business again whether you whether you are a huge fan of his style or not you knew he was going places in radio so i've known dean a long long long time and i don't i don't have a bad thing to say about him personally i don't we don't know each other that well,

but we were colleagues once and at Chorus when he was at the Edge. Right, you were at Schitt's 40. So we were at three different stations together, but because of the Schitt's we rarely saw each other.

Yeah. And I mean, when this was first announced, I think there was speculation about it because Dean's dad was a longtime Rogers guy. I don't know. I believe he was maybe a West,

but he was a longtime, I don't know if he was an executive or what he was. No clue. I can't help you with that? I don't know. I believe he was maybe a West, but he was a longtime, I don't know if he was an executive or what he was, but. No clue. I can't help you with that because I don't even know if Dean's real name is his real name. Sometimes you don't know in the business.

I don't know. I am Greg Brady. You can imagine. Who would choose to call themselves that in 2017 if they could, right? Absolutely. All right. So you're moved to one o'clock.

I remember when the news first came down, they said Andrew Walker was going to stick around to co-host with Dean Blundell. That was the initial... Oh, yeah. Because I read it on my blog. That was the initial thing.

And then I guess some time went on and they decided to keep you two together. So what happened there? What happened there? I think after some initial chit-chat, I can't speak for meetings that Dean and Andrew and Don and whoever else was planning to be on the show would have had. But I think Andrew was hesitant, thinking, I moved here to work with Greg. I mean, we were both kind of shell-shocked by the concept of it all.

And, no, unhappy, and, and no, I, I unhappy. Is that right? I, I, you know, we, I wouldn't say we were disgruntled like, oh damn, we're going to, you know, have a mutiny here because your job's your job and you're getting paid to work. But I think I was worried about the, I was worried about several things. The impact it had on the station, uh, the impact it had on the slot, which I consider a really special slot when you consider who's walked through those doors

at 4.30 or 5 in the morning to get ready for a show. Some pretty big hitters. Like, again, I'm pinching myself in the last two months of this happening because I'm honored to do it again. You're just trying to follow in the great footsteps of Andrew Crystal. Well, I did that once, yes. He's a size 15. Yeah, I don't know what that means.

But Andrew, I think, had some hesitance of going on the show with Dean. And to be fair, I'd ask you this, objectively, should Dean have been, if you're going to announce Dean to do a show, should he have to work with a co-host who isn't all that into the idea? No. Right. So I think, I think, I wouldn't say cooler heads prevailed. And they also might've given, I could have done the one o'clock show by myself, but I did say I was worried we'd lose Andrew to the competition. And I care a lot about the station. Again, my screaming, ridiculous comments from the previous six months aside. Despite that, I'm competitive and I want to win. And I did think the best thing for me would be to keep Andrew as a co-host. Sure, yeah, at one o'clock. There are logistics issues and cost issues that we'll get to that led to that not being as long-lived as I would have liked. But me say some things, and you can tell me whether you can comment

or whether I'm barking up the wrong tree. I have a lot of no comments for you today. I can promise you that. You're a veteran, right? You've had many years' experience in the market. You mentioned the 640 experience, and then you're coming to do mornings with Jim Lang initially. That's right.

And then Andrew Walker. So you kind of come from another station in the market. You've established yourself as a Toronto sports media personality. You are seasoned. So you kind of come from another station in the market. You've established yourself as a Toronto sports media personality. You are seasoned. So you would come in. I'm going to say you would come in commanding a, especially to do mornings, you would have a certain salary.

And maybe Andrew Walker, who comes from, he's younger, less seasoned, comes from Calgary, I believe. That's right. He's going to come in at a smaller,

I'm going to, and I'm speculating here. I haven't seen your T4 slips or anything, but Andrew Walker comes in a smaller compensation package. Is it fair to say if you're making morning show money, you're being overpaid to do 1pm?

Oh, a thousand percent. This shows you how bad I am with math. You can't have a thousand percent. That is impossible, Greg. And you can't give 110% in a hockey game. But, yeah, I had a bad feeling about it. I've said this to close confidence. I wish I'd walked in when they brought me in and said, because I knew a day before everybody else,

and when they pitched this to me and said, this is how it's going to go down, I wish I'd thought to give money back. You hear about that sometimes with athletes, right? Defer some salary or they work out something. But I wish I'd bargained for more term because I did feel vulnerable. That was on my mind a lot of days because I'll tell you something. You've interviewed a lot of people that work in radio.

How many of them come into you and say, I'm overpaid? Not many. Not many. It's radio. But did I feel that for the slot? Oh, yeah, I did. And we were, you know, we were we were it was a crowded house at one o'clock with both of us being there. Right. Replacing Tim and Sid. Bottom line is, yeah, I know you don't want to jump ahead too much, but I would say Andrew was Andrew was hesitant to do the morning show. That's no secret. And Dean maybe deserved somebody who saw it as more of an opportunity and was more into it. I think that's really fair. So for a while, I think we thought it would all work out and maybe everyone's

happy with their lot in life, maybe. But did you ever in your wildest dreams think that you could get back to mornings? Like once they put Blundell in there and you go to you ever in your wildest dreams think that you could get back to mornings? Like once they put Blundell in there and you go to one o'clock, did you think, well, I'll keep plugging along and maybe one day I can get back to where I want to be, which is mornings? Well, this all has, I mean,

you mentioned Mike Richards earlier. It's no secret, though I would maybe dispute that our jobs were on the line around 2014 when Mike was coming up for re-signing with TSN. I would not agree with that. We were doing very well. Mike was

very coveted by Rodgers to come and do the morning show in the summer of 10 when Landry and Stelic were moved out of that slot. They were looking for a while for someone to do that show. I think they identified Mike, and as he said, he chose TSN. Probably the right... There was a little bit of up and down with who's going to work in this slot,

who's going to work in that slot. And again, I owe so much to Don Collins. I am a Don Collins fan, and people say, can you be? He moved you to one o'clock with Blundell there. Yes, but I do... I'll get to some of the logic behind the move of Dean. Now, I wouldn't have done it, but I also understand in this business how calculating you have to be about whether a demographic is changing, whether you can capture a younger demographic, whether Dean had some cachet coming from the edge or whether coming off the, I don't think anyone would argue, a really ugly dismissal at the edge for some unspeakably bad comments by him and the rest of the show. There's still pending legal action about this, right, and a new trial for this guy in this case.

I would say there was, I think there was general concern from everybody, but they thought it was a roll of the dice worth taking. And I understood that also. What I've said to people before, before I answer whether I ever thought I'd get back to mornings, is Tim and Sid weren't easy to replace. Elliot and I and Hugh Burrell will deal with this next week, where some people might have liked Dean's show. And I don't know what the percentage will be. I feel like we're going to be warmly received.

I think we're going to be warmly received. I think we're going to do really well. But Andrew and I step into 1 o'clock and Tim and Sid are there and they have their fans and they're like, who are you clowns?

And admittedly, you have some people who are like, thank God, you guys are better than Tim and Sid. Now, again, I don't know how many

are on each side, but you love radio. Do you read the comments? Because when somebody like, let's say me or Toronto Sports Media, I think that would be about it. But we write about some change like this. There's a bunch of comments. And some will say, oh, thank, for example, Greg Brady taking over for Blundell again. Some comments will come in like, oh, thank goodness I can listen to the fan again in the mornings.

And some will say that's going back to the old that's not the direction they should go we've been there done that we should try so so you get you get a mix i wonder if you ever read these comments i have gotten really good in the last year you can imagine um despite the unbelievable amount of free time that like i felt like many a day i'm the least busy person in the world uh in the last year before coming back to work so that said I mean I've still done some BBC stuff I went to France to go watch the Euros I've but I really did close down the circle of friends like there would be people that say come on out and do this and you're like I don't know because you're gonna ask me how

I'm doing and I'm not I'm doing, and I'm not—I'm doing okay mentally. I mean, again, wonderful wife, wonderful kids I got. I know there's going to be a bounce back at some point in time, but I don't know what it is. So I got no news for you. And you got to keep that—A, you got to keep that close to the vest anyway. So I closed it down a fair bit, but I'd say with the comments, you really learn after a while that you're just— You know the website rotten tomatoes they review movies of course of course so if you went on there you'd see let's take it let's take a undeniable classic like goodfellas then you'll look on rotten tomatoes and it'll be

like 91 right who are the nine percent it was so boring and the acting was, who is this? Robert De Niro sucked. So you get that, and you're like, man, you'll never please everybody. You will never please everybody. And the people you can't now. Some critiques, and I hope we'll talk about this with regard to the new show. We will. I do think I have a great sense in the last year from, from taking counsel with some,

and some of it's just me realizing stuff about me, um, how I might want to be different coming back. Cause I think every broadcaster has an evolution of some sort in, in his career and a, and a, and a reality check moment. And maybe this is it to some extent,

but I'll talk about that later. We're going to, we're going to do a deep dive into the new show uh reminds me of uh mike richards who was ready to dive into his raw mike richards he wanted to dive into his elevator please don't promote other podcasts when we're promoting uh would you deem that as a comp that's not competition right i mean that's not a well it isn't it isn't and like I said I really wish him well and I'm again I was staring at doing something Mike's a little older than me that's all

I mean he is so it's I feel like I've got I have a great belief in terrestrial radio I would I do believe you can be your own person and I I've had great bosses at Rogers I feel like if I'd ended up at Bell I would have had great bosses I mean I I've had great bosses at Rogers I feel like if I'd ended up at Bell I would have

had great bosses I mean I had I had uh I have friends there and I had good conversations with those people I was never offered a job there but I don't know that I wouldn't have been at a certain given time as you know with radio like look at the last three February's and you've had a lot of guests in right you had Maureen Holloway who's now at Rogers at our place. Jen Valentine got a great job. And in Sports Talk, we've had three real Februaries where you're like, boom, like big. And I've been impacted in the day to listen to something. And there are people that love to get in their cars and turn on FM and AM, and they only do that. And there's some people that are, as you know, are all about the podcast. And there's some people that are a combination of both. Again, sort of with the approval, disapproval ratings, I don't know. I don't have the stats in front of me to tell you what's what or how it's trending. I do have this weird theory that we all turn into our dads eventually, and we want life to be simple.

So we do want to turn on the radio, hear familiar voices, and especially with sports, how beliefs do last night, how the Jays do. I trust these two guys with their opinions, and that's, again, you can't pretend to be a sports fan on the radio now and get the job done with such a discerning, critical public. I am sorry for bringing up Mike Richards so much, but you have to understand how recently he had a face-to-face. It's all so fresh. I can't remember some guests from 100 episodes ago, but Mike Richards was literally yesterday. So I got a couple more here. First of all, there's a lot of interesting parallels. Sorry, Maestro's falling here. There's interesting parallels that he was also making morning show money and was moved to 1 p.m. And I just find that interesting because you and him have a similarity.

Well, he would have been a dead duck financially also. No question. I mean, I know his story. And like I said, his health is the most paramount thing. But I was very concerned going to 1 o'clock. His health is the most paramount thing. But I was very concerned going to 1 o'clock. And also, I do think Andrew and I had a tough time adjusting to the show.

We felt it's a real – I weirdly think, like, had we gone to 9 to noon, and Jeff Blair does such a great job there, I don't think that was an option. There's, again, something if people – my program director, Don Collins, people say, wow, and why did Collins do this? Here's what he did. He brought me to the station. I'm thankful, and I'm not objective, but I think that was good. He put me in mornings after Andrew Crystal.

I think that was good. Jim Lang was a good partner for me. Then Andrew Walker was a good partner for me. He had a choice between two or three other broadcasters besides Jeff Blair, and I think he chose the right broadcaster in Jeff Blair. And he also brought Tim and Sid. Tim and Sid could have gone anywhere and done anything when they were out of contract at the score, and he put those guys in at 1 o'clock,

and they became stars. The only two knocks you hear about Don Collins, who I don't know, but I know he listens to this show, for example, so I like him already. I didn't tell you that. How do you know that? Oh, is he really? Okay, fine.

A couple of moves that they always question are the Crystal move and the Blundell move. Those are the two that people when when people want to like trash don collins those are the two examples they point to well it's coming into i i really back him and i will say two things he's been a very valuable year to lean on he reached out almost immediately after uh i left the fan last year and I don't think like guilt or responsibility, it's got nothing to do with him. Whether I was, I mean, yes, he moved me to one o'clock, but you got to make your own fate.

I could have walked in at any point, like I said, and said, how about we do a new deal? And I don't want to get cut because of money. And I'm smart enough, I think, going forward that I hope to never again get cut because of money. I want you to cut me because I'm not doing a good job. And I don't ever feel like that's happened in Toronto or Detroit. I've worked at three places in coming up to 20 years now. And I left one, which was very hard to do, AM640, to go to the fan because it was the right opportunity. But Mike,

when I got to the fan, there were very familiar voices who didn't have shows anymore uh mike hogan don landry gourd stellick um jack armstrong and eric smith had a show now they both sort of stayed with the raptor i understood that one and eric would tell you pretty hard to be a full-time nba broadcaster 82 games a year plus the pre-seasons and do a general talk show yeah are you taking if jack armstrong says well that that j Jays game, you were watching game six of the NBA Finals. I know that. So I don't know that you were watching.

You'd be saying, get that garbage out of here. You might be saying that. But I don't know if you're watching Jays Royals, a 12-inning thriller in mid-April when the NBA Finals run. But I'll tell you, you come into a building like the Fan and Rogers, and my initial feeling was, and I sort of, believe it or not, developed a bit of a kinship with,

with crystal because we were the new guys and you couldn't tell. It was hard to tell sometimes who wanted you there and who liked the other guys better. That's a natural thing. I don't doubt Dean dealt with that going into our slot. So I don't, again, I,

I don't want to have rivals in the business. I want to do well on my own merit. I've learned some lessons about, you know, arguing on Twitter with people in the industry. I really do want, this sounds like cliche, I want to put my head down, focus on the show that I'm going to do with Elliot and Hugh, make the lineup stronger, support the other show, support Jeff, support Andrew, support Bob, and not get caught up in all the whole Rogers versus Bell business or listening to other shows as much and saying, boy, what a crappy topic that is on the other station. I don't want to do that because Brian Hayes and I are really close.

I couldn't root against that guy. I want that guy to be great. He and I have been friends for eight or nine years and we were colleagues at AM 640. So bottom line, it was, um, the fan was a tough place to come to, but back a year ago at this time, people say, was it hard to get let go? It was harder to move to one o'clock. I was heartbroken and I, I didn't get over it very well. And I, I think it took Andrew time to get over it too. And now he's built something really great. And the best is ahead for a guy like Andrew Walker. He's like 12 years younger than me. He's a great broadcaster.

You listen to enough radio. It's hard to do a solo three hour show and he pulls it off. And I don't know anybody that was at that age that pulls it off like he does. By the way, you mentioned Brian Hayes. The last three guests worked very closely with Brian's uncle, because Maureen Holloway, Craig Venn, Lobster Boy, and Mike Richards. So you never worked with John Derringer, though.

I went on his show a couple times at Chorus. Do you want to count it? I don't think I think I've done that. I think I filled in on Leaf's breakfast on Q107. I've been on the Mighty Q. I can claim that. Let's get you fired so we can get you back on the air. I'm not going to tell you these stories.

You're always like, how did it happen? And did you go into a room and there's an agent? When does it happen the other way? They don't throw you off a building. Sometimes they invite you to a dinner and they say, hey, you guys are all gone. I want a phone call next time. And I don't want it right after my show. It's funny.

That's how Jason Barr, I think. I mean, he told a story where he could smell it coming. He didn't want it coming. He said, just tell me on the phone. Save me the trip. And yeah, they just did the phone. So, okay, so you're at one o'clock. And at some point, the Brady and Walker show at one o'clock became the Andrew Walker show.

Sure as hell did. And, you know, tell me what you can, though. So, did you see it coming? And when you got it, how did it feel? Did you see it coming? And when you got it, how did it feel? And then, of course, did you think there was ever a chance you'd be back on morning? This is where you turn into Jerry Springer.

There's a guy, a big bouncer guy in a black golf shirt standing right behind me right now thinking I'm going to come at the table at you. Have another beer, Greg. Let's get on this thing. There were two moments where I thought in the new year, there was an announcement of some cuts at Rogers. These things happen. But I felt very vulnerable. And I know there'd been a couple other cuts in the radio department earlier in the fall. And a colleague said to me, your show, it's attitude. I think we had started to settle in, but I don't know that we were still doing exactly what we wanted to do. And, uh, and I think I got back from Superbowl. I did Superbowl for BBC. I got back.

I spent Monday there. I had a late Monday flight. So I was on the show by via phone on the Monday, came in the station on the Tuesday. And then I had this weird feeling on Wednesday that it'd be my last show. And it was, and at four o'clock, uh, we, we had the discussion and I looked at the paper with the terms of the deal and I knew the terms of the deal and without, again, um, giving confidential details away, I knew, I knew I had time to plan the next step. I wasn't disappointed. It sounds weird.

I was more disappointed to have the job at one o'clock and move there because I thought it might have been a move that was hurting the long-term value of the station and the morning show slot. And again, that's not against Dean. That's just where things were with what we were building and starting something new and something that maybe even a loyal audience like the fans, maybe it wouldn't get the bounce they were hoping for. I was worried it would cost Don and he left of his own volition a few months later to go to San Francisco to go to a great opportunity. But I'm sure that looked strange, right? Like make the morning show change.

Why is the program director leaving three months later? But I went home. I told my wife and kids, which I didn't have to do when I left Detroit in 2007, because they were one and a half and five months pregnant in my wife's stomach. So it was easier not to have those conversations. Exactly.

But that time, Mike, I bounced back. The water show job was available. Jeff Merrick had worked with Bill Waters, and he'd taken a job with Sirius Hockey Night in Canada Radio. He probably explained that to you when he did that. And look at Jeff now. If he's not the best hockey broadcaster, he's tied with about four other people.

He's really good. Is he Rogers' Bob McKenzie? Well, I don't think he's breaking stories quite. He certainly is well-sourced, but he's a host. But even with draft order prediction stuff that people, like McKenzie, that kind of stuff? He knows that stuff. Is that his?

Is he the Rogers guy for that? Jeff's is in psych. I got to be that guy in Detroit just because, as you know, when you just recall something, you recall something. You don't ask for it to stick in your head like all of Honeymoon Suite's top 40 singles, but it does. Hi, Johnny D. Even Wave Babies. Yeah, I don't know if that cracked the top.

But Stay in the Light and New Girl Now certainly did. But anyway, Jeff is a phenomenally talented broadcaster. And also, that was my first introduction to, you got shoes to fill. Because I came here and people knew Jeff Merrick and Bill Waters. All of a sudden, who's Greg Brady? And it takes time for the audience to relate to you. Some people might like you better. Equally, far less than.

But it takes time. And I think when all that went down, when all of it went down a year ago, I didn't, I never gave up on, I didn't want to burn a bridge anywhere at that point. And I was humbled. If you're not working, you're humbled. You just are. And I was, but I was also burned out and I needed the rest. And I felt great mentally about where things were going to go.

I just felt like it would all work out until September came. And then the kids go back to school and your wife's, my wife writes for the Globe and Mail, um, as a features writer in the sports section, covers the Raptors a lot. That was hard for her too, because she has to go out to public venues and everyone's like, what happened? What are you stealing office supplies? What is this all about? And she doesn't want to start talking about people's salaries. And she doesn't want to talk about me being disappointed still that I got moved out of mornings. I wish I'd handled it better, but I bet you there's other people around me that wish they'd handled things better with how the transition was. I'll tell you one thing that I had to get used to was the stuff leaked out. Like Andrew and I knew maybe four days before

that this was happening. And I didn't like didn't like that and i don't blame anybody for that but that's it's sort of like a coach finding out right like a coach finding out hey paul maurice you might not be the least coach in three days and then you got to carry that for three days because you want to hear it directly from your superior like three weeks ago on wednesday or whatever when what was the first you heard dean blundell was out? Probably because the press release went out. It was airtight. I got out of the country. I even went to Florida for three days. I knew I had a small window of time, um, to go somewhere. And I want to take my family on vacation, but you're, you trust me, you sit there for a year, no matter what your severance is, you don't know what you're going to like your store and nuts for

the winter. You don't know if you're going to be out of work for two months, four months, six months. I knew I'd get back at some point in time. You can imagine how I grin at people who are like, I knew this would happen. I figured this is how it would end. And I'm like, I didn't. So great that you didn't have the stress that I did for the last 12 months or so. Man. So, okay. Now, a couple of questions I want to get out here before we dive into the new Brady and Price show is Mike Richards said to me. Oh, God. Him again? This last time I'm going to be here.

You didn't mention me this much on his podcast. You came up quite a bit. Oh, don't. But Mike Richards said he was this close, and everybody, this is the small thing I'm doing to my face. He was this close to replacing you on 590 when his contract was up before he re-signed. Do you think that's true? Any sense of that? Was there any chance of Mike Richards replacing you in mornings before Blundell?

I don't have a sense of it because my understanding is Mike would have re-signed around the time of the Sochi Olympics. And actually, we both had good—he mentioned it—we both had really good spring ratings periods in 2014. So what was the impetus for, and Andrew had just moved here six months earlier and signed what I would assume would have been a contract of three years, four years. So I don't doubt that maybe that was, like maybe if he was working with an agent at the time,

that an agent says, do you want me to, I hear things, I'm hearing things, do you want us to pitch over there? And he said, no, I'm really good here, which was the right. Mike talked yesterday about, again,

I might hear from Mike about this, but I think we'll have more in common than we will disagree. Mike talked about the need to give time to building something. And around Mike, I would concur with 10 50 and they've left things alone now for a year. That's the way to do it. Although Scott MacArthur stepped in at one o'clock who's great post mike and i like scott and i you know we're i consider him a friend and a colleague and i'd always see him at jay's games and i hope that

works there you do need you do need to leave stuff alone for a while and they left mike there but the lineup was often in flux people forget brian hayes i feel like worked worked every shift on that station and then was at leaf's lunch and then they moved into four o'clock you know what ride the storm out leave him there there'll be good books and bad books leave that show there because it's very different from the show bob does and i of course i listen to both of course i drive around like i'm not no one's gonna believe me if i say i love sports but i only even the commercials i only listen to the fan of course no one's going to believe me if I say I love sports, but I only, even the commercials, I only listen to the fan. Of course, no one's going to believe that. But what I'd say is I'd be really surprised if, because I will say at that point, Dean would have been a free agent,

maybe soon to be unrestricted. And people might not remember this. He filled in for a week on the Jeff Blair show in May of that year. And I think there were differing opinions as to how it went. Dean might even have a differing opinion to how it went. Um, but I think some of us thought, well, that's that, um, like you can't be everything and, uh, you can't, you can't do everything. And I, I'm, I think Dean came in and worked super hard and did the best he could. And I think, put it this way, let's say I had wanted to do a job at The Edge and I had the resume from another industry, another format, if you will, another genre. And The Edge said, we got to get this guy. He's really good with that genre. And I walked in on The Edge and it wasn't really me. and i was forcing it like you're more of a boom guy but but here's what i dean had cachet but he also had that sort of stigma from how he got let go he'd he'd admit that so the

question was what kind of noise would dean make and would he go to they had a lot of questions to answer at the fan and again i understood them I didn't have to agree with them. I understood them because if Dean goes somewhere, can he hurt us? If he goes somewhere in mornings, can he hurt us? What do we do about Tim and Sid leaving? Is anybody ready to do that? Or should we put Brady and walk or Brady in there first? And then eventually Brady and Walker. These are all, these are all fair questions. Like I always watch when you watch you watch, say, basketball or hockey, who's played the game? Like, Greg Popovich.

Nobody really knows Greg Popovich was head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. Like, five NBA titles. What's his bat? Like, is he a great player from the past? No, he is not. So when he's whispering at Tim Duncan, what are we possibly thinking he's telling Tim Duncan that helps him? Or Bruce Boudreau, who was a borderline NHLer.

What's he telling Alexander Ovechkin or Corey Perry that can help that player who's walking into the Hall of Fame? But there is that element there with, I think, my bosses who, again, I don't want to sound like I'm reaching too far to be glad-handing and be grateful. I am grateful for what's going to transpire here and grateful to be partnered with Elliot and Hugh being there. But from Scott Moore to Julie Adam to Dave Cadeau, I couldn't be more supported. And they all would have had an opinion about whether how how well the Dean thing would work should we do it should we not do it I know there were differing opinions internally about how to do it I don't want to speak okay so let's take even um the hockey night in Canada thing right it's weird to talk about it it's it's the company I

work for again but you know how many differing opinions there were about Strombo taking over. Ron McLean gets moved to Sundays. Good or bad? Will it work? Who watches? Who doesn't? And I don't have any great answers. Last year, Strombo's second year, no Canadian teams are any good and no Canadian teams make the playoffs.

Fun for him, right? Ron's back, who's also an awesome broadcaster. And guess what Ron might get? I don't know, a Montreal-Toronto first round or Edmund Connor McDavid in his first playoff. So you got to, some of it's so circumstantial in the business. And I got, I didn't get screwed. I didn't get a terrible hand dealt to me. I think there was some bad, it was a bad bounce, but you have to, I never heard you talk.

You probably haven't had a radio guest in who hasn't been the victim of some bad there it was a bad bounce but you have to i never heard you talk i don't you probably haven't had a radio guest in who hasn't been the victim of some bad circumstance or gotten let go and said i better take this punch and get right back up and show i can take it and take it with dignity and see what's next and what's next is something that's really wonderful i'm you're right it's a happy ending how did they approach you about coming back? So you can't reveal the specifics, but it sounds like you're paid to sit at home for a while. I was. I was very fortunate, but I'd rather, I always think you'd rather have the job. Like if they'd come to me and said, you can go home for X salary, 2X salary, or you can keep working for 1X salary and do the same thing. And take a look at Andrew.

Andrew's salary didn't change when I was gone. So they're saying to Andrew, do close to double the work. Let's say we were splitting our creative output equally. I'd say that's reasonable. Our producer, J.D. Bunkus, is great also, and he's on with Andrew sometimes. Again, I might have cast a shadow with Andrew that wasn't fair to Andrew. Do you think he's better without you? I know that sounds like a loaded question, but just

in terms of his... Well, I don't know how it hasn't helped him grow as a broadcaster. When I've done solo shows, I had a partner in Detroit at 9am and then they said, you're going to evenings by yourself at 7 to 10 and you'll take, and we're cutting your pay. No negotiation

here. This is what's happening. So, but that made me a better broadcaster because you're doing a different style of reps. So Andrew, I don't know how he couldn't have got better. A guy had been doing the morning show six years at WDFN in Detroit. I replaced a longtime partner and I felt in his shadow for a little, until I didn't.

Like we were there together five and a half years and we did some really good work and we had great ratings there at times. But I felt in his shadow for a couple of years and it's tough to sort of break that a little bit. I'm sure there's lots of... Bill Waters. Bill Waters, everybody knows Bill Waters in Toronto. So I'm just a guy next to Bill Waters for a while until I establish myself. And they go, hey, this is a good fit. And they have good chemistry. And that's a good combo. It takes time.

So I don't know. Andrew has to be a better broadcaster because when you're doing solo, I've heard Hayes do solo. He can do it. I think I can do a solo show. Jeff does a good solo show. Andrew joined that group. I think it's a small group of people that here's a mic you got three hours fill the time right every damn day right it's there's no teleprompter and

there's no delete button so you got to go do it just is it like you're at home chilling one day and dave cadeau phones you and says hey can we talk like how does this uh how do they approach you about coming back i um i had a random meeting uh outside i won't say with who with outside rogers center at the end of the jays orioles wild card and i emailed that person the next day and i said it was great to see you i'd love to pick your brain over a coffee or something we had coffee i met another person who i was trying to meet with a couple months earlier and i did say to my wife, I said, I feel like the first meeting went well enough that the second meeting is now happening with

this other person. There's communication happening here. Dave and I talked, but Dave plays... Dave's... Again, Dave's my boss. I think he plays the cards pretty close to the vest, and he wanted to also investigate how i was because i'd say dave got to see me for four and a half years and dave also worked it off the record for michael landsberg and they booked me occasionally so that was really cool again michael so there you go there's another guy in a small small media world who's on mornings and we talked when he started mornings and when i wasn't doing anything and I'd consider him a friend. I, there's another guy, four to five people come to you and go, wow, that Landsberg, what

a jerk ever met him. Nope. Yeah, exactly. He's one of the sweetest, most unbelievably generous guys in the business. And we kind of, you know, we had coffee a couple of times. We text. And now here we are kind of rivals. But I hope, I don't wish ill on him. And I don't think he does. I just hope there's a lot of people listening to sports in the morning now.

That's how the business is. And so Dave and I had some communication. But I still was sort of looking to see. I did feel it might be coming to an end for Dean. But I also feel like that might have been as mutual as Dean says it is. Because it comes down to maybe they wanted it to be deeper into sports and Dean wasn't interested in going deeper into sports. He wanted to probably go the other direction. And I think that's very reasonable because I think it was meant to focus on the things Dean does best.

Dean is an unbelievably good broadcaster. Is he an unbelievably good sports broadcaster? He might tell you that he isn't because he can't commit full. He can't be a hundred percent. This is like taking a great rock artist and say, how's, how about making a classical album? Now some guys will want to do it,

but like some guys are David Bowie and they can switch genres. Think of a band where every album kind of sounds the same. And that's like, The Stones always sound like The Stones, right? ACDC. That's a great example, is ACDC. So they're like, yeah, it was like, ACDC, why don't you do a, like, where's your I want to know what love is?

Like, Foreigner made rock songs and then all of a sudden made a couple ballads. They need more ballads, ACDC. Like, Waiting for a Girl Like You and I Want want to and maybe dean didn't like the ballads dean dean wanted to do the dean stuff and dean will go somewhere and do the dean stuff so not that i got direct info or straight from the horse's mouth but i did i would say in my meetings i pitched i pitched the mornings and i said if you're going forward, great, good. I mean, again, I don't wish – Ryan Faber is my producer now. He was Dean's producer.

I can't root against that guy. I wanted that show to light it up. I wanted the station as a whole when we were all together to light it up. So you never rooted against Dean when you were moved to 1 o'clock? I didn't feel I was a great support. I didn't feel I reached out enough to Dean. He called me when he got the job, and it was the last phone conversation we had. It didn't go badly, but I was still sort of broken up. And yet happy for him. I do think he made, again,

I'm no stranger to making an on-air mistake or a mistake online. I think I'm going to make a lot fewer of them in my next 10 years than I have in the last 10 years. That online. I think I'm going to make a lot fewer of them in my next, uh, 10 years than I have in the last 10 years. That's what I think about myself and how I've evolved and matured. But I think Dean, I wish I'd been more supportive of him, but I was worried for all the reasons you said. And they're all, I think all the reasons that he's laid out, that the station management has laid out that it might not be an ideal brand fit. Like, Mike, I love, you know, okay, so there we are talking about music. I love 80s music.

If I go over and start working at Virgin Radio or Boom, I think some people will like it. You know who's not coming? The Fan 590 listeners who like me talking about the Raptors backcourt or baseball or hockey. They're not coming. Nick Kiprios is really popular at his job. If he becomes, if it's Kipper and on a rock show on Q107,

a lot of the people that love him on Sportsnet, it's really hard to move genres. And I don't know if they found that out with Dean or Dean found that out himself. But again, I hope, you said this is a happy ending. I hope it is for Dean. I think he's established himself again as a guy that you can count on to show

up every day and have an amazing sense of humor and make other broadcasters around him better. And I think the next thing he does, he'll do that again. I mean, no one's worried about Dean Lundell working. No one should be. He says he's retired. Did you hear that quote from him? He's retired from radio?

You don't believe that? Because I think Maureen Holloway said he's retired until he gets an offer he can't refuse, and then he's unretired. I think he's got that. But I don't doubt that everything that happened at Chorus took a toll on him. And I'm not defending his comments. And I had a lot of discussions with people who I don't think you need to play the, well, I have a gay friend or I have a gay brother-in-law or which I do.

Um, but I, I know how people felt about him and I know there were people that weren't ever going to give him another chance. There still may be that group, but I think some people said, I'm not going to give him a chance, gave him a chance. And they sort of welcomed him back into the mainstream. And I think he's grateful for that. I don't know, again, I'm not going to, I won't be calling him later today, and he's

probably not going to call me, but there's a big difference between that and being somehow enemies. I think the public likes to hear, you know, you do too, you love to hear about who doesn't like who, no you don't, you like to hear about it, but I don't think that's, I know that's not the case here. But only when it leaks into public, Elk Simmons and Myrtle, for example.

Only when it leaks into the public domain will I ask about it. And if they can't control that, and that's the thing. I want to get called out by people if I ever have another giant Twitter argument with somebody or I ever call out a writer outside of, hey, I disagree with the premise of this column. Like, I disagree that the Blue Jays are cheapskates when they're a top 10 payroll. I hope that's okay. I disagree with this analysis of the Leafs goaltender, and here's why.

So I don't, I'm just, you kind of get over stuff like that, and I don't need to, I just want to concentrate on the work. So no schadenfreude when Blundell gets partsway. Not at all. Not at all. But it created an opportunity for me.

Some people, I don't doubt they kicked around every combination i don't doubt that what have we paired brady and blundell okay wait let's talk but i don't know if that works i don't know if it works and i don't know if um if there's enough uh if there's enough microphone i i'm elliot price and i are gonna are gonna be equals and we're gonna share the microphone microphone a lot. And he was going to be a big part of the show too. But I'm, I'm happy to, here's what I don't want, Mike.

I don't want somebody at 902 going way too much Brady on that show. I don't want that. Cause I, that may have happened in the past and I've got to dial that down and share the air. Let's talk about this new show, which launches February 27. That's coming up.

How long? Well, what doesn't have a sun go down yet? Can we promote what I'm hearing? I make you work for it. Here we go. So it's called Brady and Price. It also features Hugh Burrell. How do I say this name? Hugh Burrell.

Has he considered changing it? He might be Herb Burrell by the time the show starts on Monday. But I can't even say refrigerated kits in my intro. He did decently. I tried. So did decently. So here's a quote from the press release about this new show, Brady and Price. I have no comment about the press release. The trio has incredible chemistry.

This is a quote. I actually copied and pasted that. The trio has incredible chemistry. So my first question is, how did you know? Did you do practice shows before the announcement? We've done some dry run testing. I can tell you this. We didn't sign Jack Squat until people had observed us together, not in front of a microphone and in front of a microphone. You've talked to partners, and I've talked to you about partners, and it's the ultimate arranged marriage, what a duo is. So, I mean, when I see pairings like, say, Humble and Fred,

who used to come in and be on our show, and you're talking, that's an iconic duo. And they split, like, there were a bunch of years in a row where they didn't work together. Humble went to CKFM in, like, 1990 for a little bit. Okay, but post-Mojo, they didn't work together for quite a while, right? They fired Fred.

They did fire Fred before they fired Humble from Mix 99.9. So you're right. There's a period there where Fred goes and he's a program director in Peterborough

for a period while Howard's on Easy Rock and then it becomes Boom, the aforementioned station you'd be great on. Your favorite. They play your 80s tunes there. I'm telling you, you'd love it.

Some Def Leppard, it's great. Oh, it sounds wonderful. So yeah, arranged marriage is a good term for this. So you got to make sure, and you mentioned you were very honest in the last episode you did with me. You were honest about some, I think it was chemistry struggles

maybe you had with Jim Lang. Well, I think you won't find a nicer guy in the business from Jim. So then I start to think it's professional because why am I getting annoyed by such a good guy? And there's no question I needed to back off a little bit at times, see the lightheartedness in some of our jousting. But I do think that's part of what creates a show sometimes is, is tension. And we didn't mind, we're not, we're not faking arguments and we're not, uh, you know, playing mugging to the, to the microphone, to the camera, I was going to say the camera, but

we're not, you know, pretending. And, uh, but, but there were times I think with Andrew where he'd come at me really hard on a sports opinion and I'd be like, wow, is this, is this how Jim felt when I went at him? And I, and sometimes people like get back, wow, is this how Jim felt when I went at him? And sometimes people like, get back at Walker, do this. He's talking about your hair or your kids or whatever. It's personal. I'm like, no, no, no. But I don't say a lot of it's for show. A lot of it's real. And I thought about a lot about what I've said, but I was probably too hard on Jim.

I've had people tell me in the years subsequent, their favorite morning show ever on the fan was Brady Lang because of the contrast. And then I got with Walker and people tell me in the years subsequent their favorite morning show ever on the fan was Brady and Lang because of the contrast. And then I got with Walker and people didn't see the contrast as much. Maybe we were too similar. I would never rule out, listen, if they ever said to me, and this is sort of like somebody getting back together with a band and then somebody going, yeah, but would you like to do this side

project? I'd never rule out anything Brady and Walker-esque again. But right now I think Andrew, Andrew's happy we're doing what he's doing. And, and I hope he supports us as much as we're going to support his show. Cause I just think the world of the guy and,

and I felt he felt for me losing the job, but I felt for him. And yet I was still encouraged by him because I knew how much work it would be. You can, Mike, you go to the grocery store and people are like, why did they keep Walker instead of you?

Your only answer is, he's really good. None of this is personal. They'd say to Andrew... You don't say it's because he's cheap? You don't say that he's... Oh, God, no. No! He should take issue with that. Tell me about Elliot Price. Some people in this market are less familiar with Elliot Price.

He was in Montreal. That's right. For a long time. He's done expos play-by-play. So his baseball acumen is off the charts. Now, he and I, you know me in my retrospective thinking, what we can't do in 2017 is get into a debate about the 1980

Oakland A's pitching rotation. We really got to, we're going to do that off the air. Or we'll do an old-timers baseball podcast. I think I would enjoy that. You might, yes. Yeah, there won't be any talk about Barfield, Mosby, and Bell unless we're comparing, I know, unless we're comparing to somebody current. So yeah, Elliott was the TSN 690 morning show host, and there's just two names in Montreal that I knew of, and it's Mitch Melnick, who does afternoons there, and Elliot did mornings. And that's a different market because,

and I think Andrew embraced this too, when he came here, Andrew loved baseball, so naturally he gets to talk more about the Jays than he did in Calgary. The Stampeders are going to be bigger in Calgary than the Argos are here. I know you've talked about the sort of decline of the CFL in terms of interest.

I went a couple times last summer and I loved it. And I grew up a Ticats fan in London, so Iver Wynn was always really special to me and watching games and all the CBC broadcasters and whatnot. But I think Elliott is excited to talk more baseball because the games are actually here. And I'd say also NBAba like his his four big sports uh there's not a gap and as you know sometimes you get identified hockey guy uh baseball guy basketball guy like i was saying earlier about jack armstrong who's a superb nba broadcaster but is you know is jack gonna have his pulse on what the Jays should do in the middle relief spots?

Maybe, maybe not. He's a sports fan. But Elliott is really well-rounded. And like I said, I think our contrast is going to be really something. We met about three or four weeks ago, and things got eyes dotted and T's crossed about three or four days later. And I think fans are going to really enjoy the show. The one thing I'd say is I think there's been a characterization that Dean's show attempted to be fun, and we won't be. Mornings are going to be.

You're going to be the nerdy sports talk. Is that right? This is going to be like a root canal for the uh average sports stuff yeah yeah yeah that stuff doesn't play very well without unless you want to say like okay the Leafs played the Jets last night and the Leafs had 58 percent puck position you can go there but you're basically talking about the basics his sports acumen's off the charts Hugh does a very good sports cast um and we know Hugh from uh City TV before he was a victim of some Rogers cuts

he came over to Sportsnet the phrase you'll hear often times and I'm sure I'm not the first to drop it on your podcast is headcount, it was too much headcount and I probably again I think I stuck out like a sore thumb and I understood and I left with a smile

on my face, I did the best job I could under not great circumstances. I didn't make them that girl? Why was I so hung up on living in that apartment? Why couldn't I get along with this roommate better? And you don't know why, but you can't regret it. You did what you did, and I didn't have arguments with people. I think I was coming to work with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder and had a little—my body language probably wasn't great. And even when I came in and felt happy about life in general, maybe Andrew wasn't. and felt happy about life in general. Maybe Andrew wasn't.

And he got into the one o'clock slot, I think, after I left, and maybe I needed to leave for him to fully get into it. So, okay, so Andrew's happy at one o'clock. You're happy with Elliot and Hugh. You've had some kind of a chemistry test and they've passed. So this quote here

that you have incredible chemistry, that's fair. I think with flying colors, I know that it's going to be for the audience to judge, but I don't feel like I'm selling something I don't believe in. Not that I had the wherewithal

to sit out and weigh this offer. I'm not a big... I wouldn't talk about that even... I find that people that might go, oh, I could have done this, and then this happened, and then blah. What happens is what happens.

And this came along. There was no other way I could do anything else, no matter what I was pitching or being pitched to me at the time. And I think it's going to be a big hit. I hate to make bold predictions, but I think if you like what I was doing before in mornings, you're going to like this better than anything I've ever done.

And I think people who, like me before, will see the same style and people that may have thought he's too loud, he's being negative. As you know also, if the Toronto teams don't give you anything positive to be positive about, what can you say? You can say it's early. It's not Leafs TV. I can't just go 7-1 I, you know, it's not, you can say it's early. It's not Leafs TV. I can't, you know, I can't just go seven,

one loss, but that, that Leaf goal was great. It's very, but we're in it, Mike, we're in a really good time for Toronto sports. Like think what April might be Leafs Raptors playoffs.

Jay's kicking off playoffs the last two years. We're all hoping because it, it does factor into how people are feeling in the morning when their team does something big or plays a big game and they were at it or they saw it or they listened to it matters any blowback that it's another trio of older white guys middle-aged older white guys and i have nothing against middle i hope to one day be an older white guy that's my goal you're well underway yeah but so you elliot and hugh like i mean let's say any consideration of adding a woman to the mix or anything. I just, I'm only asking this question because you're going to hear from people who say that there's no diversity in this roster.

Well, I think you can look at the scenario and go, there has to be more. I taught at College of Sports Media for a couple of years. And there are women that I really wanted to, now you'll have to understand, get involved with. Thank you, Hank Kingsley. But there were people that I thought had phenomenal potential. And some of them are currently reaching their potential right now. I don't think Sportsnet has much to apologize for when Carolyn Cameron's done what she's done or Ivanka Osment's done what she's done or, you know, utilizing in the city alone. Yeah, but those are sports anchor.

That desk I noticed, it's a little different is all I'm saying there. So do you think men are being discriminated against on the desk? No, there's a, you know, I just had, I'm not speaking for Rogers, but Rod Smith was just here, for example. There's a lot of guys on the desk, too. But outside of the desk, and I'm just asking the question, should there be a female voice on the fan that's not reading traffic? Not to, I would say. And it's not, you're not the program director, and it's not your, you know, you are what you are. No, no, no, but I would say yes.

I've sworn to myself to get, like, worry a little, worry more about me and less about others. It sounds like I'm going to get more selfish. But I do think you have to hire somebody because of who they are. The competition hires Andy Petrillo. You know why? Because she put in years at Leafs TV and was established, and people knew her as a broadcaster, and she'd worked also at – oh, that's right that's right at cbc and yes cbc yeah so there's there's a very uh astute hire how do i know that the fan wouldn't have hired her if tsn

didn't hire and she obviously was doing stuff uh before there's uh cassie campbell somebody i look at and i go and and i'll be fair about this i thought in the first year or two, like a lot of ex-athletes, I think Cassie might have been doing things that she ended up getting better at. But I'd say that about, ask anybody who's been in here. I think radio, you can jump in, snap of a finger, and there's sort of an it factor, like an NFL quarterback. You know Andrew Luck is good the very first time he steps on an NFL field, or Peyton Manning or John Elway. There are others who develop a little later. I'd like to see more diversity. I'd like to see more diversity in terms of women. I'd like to see more diversity in terms of color. I mean, Paul Jones is a great broadcaster for the Raptors.

Arash Madani, right? Ian Mendez is doing great work at TSN Radio in Ottawa. I really find it's difficult to know what people want. And I will tell you, I will tell you from the students, they all want to do TV. Women want to do TV. But I'll be in their, in their defense. What I can't tell is, do they feel radio is too shut in for them and they'll get typecast as just doing updates or reading tweets? Or do they know TV is, as you know, more lucrative, you can become

a bigger star, you can get maybe more opportunity and bottom line, you can, it helps your bank account a bit better to have an A, a grade A job in TV than it does in radio. So there's a lot of different, it's the same as in the States, but what I think we're seeing is like, Charissa Thompson might take over Chris Berman's spot anchoring, right, on Sunday Countdown. We've seen Chris Berman forever, right,

with Tom Jackson and the guys they got now, Randy Moss and Matt Hasselbeck. But I don't doubt that day is coming to some extent. And I think both networks have been progressive, Bell and Rogers, TSN and Sportsnet. On the radio side, yeah, I know they're looking. I know they're looking and there might be people that are just on the edge of that opportunity. But the one thing I'd also say about radio is if you don't want to move from Toronto, you're going to have to wait a while. There's not the farm system in sort of minor league radio, if you

will. There's less jobs in Sarnia or Windsor or Kitchener or out of Ontario than there used to be, and it's all sort of conglomerated in the huge cities like Toronto, for better or worse. I want to close with a brief discussion

about the stick to sports. So this is a very, you know, Donald Trump in the White House, okay? Well, that's been a month, and it feels like it's been 10 years. Thanks for reminding me what a crappy... I'm out of work. Prince dies.

David Bowie dies. Glenn Frey dies. And Donald Trump gets elected. Those five things were just wonderful. Yeah, 2016 was rough. And then, you know, it's a lot of... And I think I saw a quote recently. Somebody did an article

where the TSN thought on this versus the Rogers Sportsnet thought on this. Sean Fitzgerald wrote about it for The Athletic. I think Scott Moore was quoted, Mark Millier was quoted, maybe it was Stu Johnson. You do subscribe. I like that. But I believe this one is actually free because I even read it.

So you, by the way, I regret something. I would miss, not in the video. All right. So Myrtle was here. James Myrtle. James Myrtle. Okay. And I openly, I told him I subscribe via RSS.

Okay. And all the complete articles would come into my reader and I would get them. Without a subscription, by the way. And I kindly said, hey, you know, your Chicago feed and your Toronto feed are one feed. Let's separate them so I don't have to read all the Chicago Cubs stuff. I just want to read the Toronto stuff. That seems like a reasonable request on your part for a change. What he did was, he made that happen, but he also made it so you no longer get the complete article via RSS.

You get a little excerpt, and then click here for the complete article where it's gated and you need to be subscribed. So what I did is, by being honest with him, I was getting it all for free. They closed this loophole. So nerds like me can no longer steal their content. Pay up, Mike. Right.

Pay up, TorontoMike.com. I regret now. I regret telling James Myrtle about the RSS. So back to stick to sports. So it sounds like on your side, you're encouraged. I read Damien Cox. Even though he's protected now, I'm not sure what's going on there. That's a question for him.

Like he's a bodyguard? Like he's got the padlock on his Twitter. You've got to be a follower. You've got to be accepted. He's gated, basically, himself. So I know on the Rogers side, you guys are encouraged to speak your mind on political issues. I don't think we're discouraged. The one thing, and again, this is why I walk out with last year thinking,

I'd love not to napalm the bridge, and if there's an opportunity to come back, I think I'd be better for it, and maybe I fit a role that they see. But what I loved about it, besides the sense of community and the identity you have when you're part of something and part of something bigger than just little old you, is that it was so open. And I never, I mean, even take the Blue Jays. I know there's a lot of debate about, do people come down hard on you about the Blue Jays? No, they don't. But here's what they don't want you to do. Don't make things personal.

Don't make fun of Mark Shapiro's sweater. Or don't make fun of Ross Atkins' glasses. I don't think that there's that much to ask. But if you go, I have no idea, not a clue why John Gibbons put this lineup together. I have no idea. And I remember when David Price pitched out of the bullpen against Texas. Of course, of course.

I was screaming to the masses the next day, this is asinine that they're going to turn game five over to Marcus Stroman. And again, he was okay. They burned Price. In the bat flip game, they burned David Price to pitch in that game. I mean, what'd you go get him for? But there's always a method to the madness. But I don't know that this necessarily comes from management.

Management's been great about saying, and they understand radio is different than TV. You're not going to watch a sports broadcast, again, where there's some ad lib with a teleprompter, and Carolyn Cameron, who's wonderful and smart, is going to go, now, let me talk to you about Syria for a second. But you might have that on the radio. You might have something happen to somebody. Let's talk about Twitter. Forget the radio for a minute. It's Twitter. Specific, and this is not a Rogers guy, but Bruce Arthur, for example, he gets a lot

of the stick to sports because he's very vocal. I don't know if you follow him on Twitter, but he's all over the Trump stuff and stuff. He speaks his mind on these. Damien Cox, I mentioned him off the top because he is a Rogers guy. He co-hosts with Bob McCowan now on Primetime Sports.

But he's very vocal politically on what's happening in the United States. And then people will say, stick to sports. And he'll say, oh, why don't you just unfollow? That would be his reply. So what do you think of sports journalists

being so open with opinions on non-sports topics? I'm of two minds. One is I like doing stuff that isn't just hardcore sports. I don't think you can, no matter how entertaining you are and how knowledgeable you are and how your opinions are and how many games you're watching,

I don't find your make, I don't want to do a show that can't stray once in a while. Now, I don't mind if Dave Cadeau or our producer Ryan Faber or even Elliot says, what we're planning today, what you want to do might go too far, just in terms of the lack of sports we're doing. Like when the Leafs play a playoff game, great. That's what we're doing like when the leafs play a playoff game great that's that's what you're

doing you're not going hey remember when uh should you wear white pants before uh you know easter or something so there's or after later i know after later but they never tell you when you can start with white pants mike and i'm trying to find that out is it march break i can see you wearing white i know and white and a white jean jacket that's the problem like. Like Miami Vice. But, so I'm wary of that, that it's, you give the people what you want. And in a weird way, radio, because of the short sample sizes, you're McDonald's.

Get them what they want. They'll sometimes order something different. Sometimes they like what you're doing, and sometimes they're like, I'll try something different. But they usually have a usual, when you go to McDonald's for breakfast or dinner or whatever,

don't try and give them something that the keg would offer. Does that extend to social media? Because that's great for on the airwaves, but should that extend to social media for personalities? I think you can branch out a little bit. If I make a comment about seeing Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers live, why would somebody go, you know, I follow you for sports. But what you'll get is you will push an opinion out there about Bill Maher's show or something you saw on MSNBC or CNN, and someone will drop the stick to sports on you.

And I feel that's different than the fans paying me to do a morning show. No one's paying me or you to tweet. Like you tweet, those are your opinions within reason, because we all know there's an example of the, the guy who tweeted about same sex marriage being against God's will or whatnot. Right. And he got let go. So it's within reason you can share opinions.

As long as these opinions aren't anything offensive or hateful. I'm going to opine also that I don't know that situation, but I would, I would suggest that maybe the tweet is not the only reason. And again, I've been through this, so people are always going to speculate, why did a guy get let go? Was he making too much money?

What was his name again? I shouldn't remember. Damien Goddard? Damien Goddard, yes. Okay, but again, I'm not speculating on the situation. But it is your time, and if you're not embarrassing the company, you should get to do what you want.

Now, I'm conscious of, I had somebody my first year at Rogers say, you dropped like an F-bomb. Like, again, never to call somebody a name or something, but you were like, that was an incredible effing home run. Don't do that. So you did that?

I think I did that or something. Oh, on Twitter? Yeah, a bad referee call. No, it never occurred on the air. I was going to say. Until now. But what I didn't know at the time is they had just started on sportsnet.ca to scroll our tweets.

Oh, right. And I guess it's one of those scenarios where you go, there's no. Okay, if somebody would be like, my 11-year-old goes to sportsnet.ca to see the scores every night and you don't want bad language but i but here's i think i think you brought up something and bruce gets bruce is really so damn smart but i know he gets labeled by critics as a say social justice warrior what i'm finding with sports talk is and maybe sports people who do social media in general is i worry some tweets are for the reaction not from the heart like uh you tweet out an example of something and you're like um this dog was uh abused by its owner and it's now got one ear and here's a picture of it and

you'll get a lot of reach this is awful and you got a lot of retweets. This is awful. And you've got a lot of retweets and likes. And God knows you can do anything like that politically. Or you can explain I watched what happened in the Middle East last night and tears came to my eyes. People will be like, like? You might feel that way. But I do think there's a general cynicism

now that we're like, hmm. Is there a little bit of, hey, look at me and how sensitive I am creeping in. Do you agree with that, that you can spot that? I try not to be cynical about it, but I know I spot it, and I'm a little like- I know what you mean, actually, yeah. But there I am. It feels contrived to present that image as the guy who cares about this, as opposed to the sincere, I care about this. It's a little, I mean, people had that, you remember when Sting got all interested in the rainforest

and people were like, yeah, sure. Multi-millionaire rock star cares about trees in Brazil. And then three years later, we're like, no, no, no, no, really. It's getting warmer all around the planet. And Sting had a point back in 1988 or whatever. Again, the Brady and Price show launches February 27th. So I know we keep talking about Mike Richards being here yesterday. I'm actually thinking it's two days ago because I'm thinking I'll post this Thursday.

So this is recorded on a Wednesday. So if all hell breaks loose on the Wednesday night and you're wondering why we didn't talk about it. Okay. How could they not talk about what happened Wednesday night? It's because we recorded it. Mitch Barner out for the season. I had opinions on it and you didn't let me get to them. Don't say that. Don't say that. By the way, that

was fun last night, the Leafs. These Leafs are fun. The Jets are fun. That's a good... It's too bad they don't play six times a year. Two really fun games between the teams. So thank you. This story is a happy, feel-good story. You're back on mornings at 590. I actually wrote that they corrected a wrong in the same way that Ron McLean...

Not that Strombo was bad, but they never should have removed him in the first place. This is a similar situation. Nothing anti-Blundell here. I just don't think you and Walker needed to be replaced in the first place. Well, nice of you to say. I'm part of a strong lineup. I think people are going to really enjoy the show.

I think people, yeah, they liked what I was doing before. I really think they'll be impressed and it'll take time. It'll take time for people to get used to all our grooves. We're getting used to each other. I can't thank you enough for letting me come on and talk about where it's going, but it's also, you know, it's nice to put the past behind. It's maybe the last time I'll have to talk about the past,

and I'm only looking forward. I appreciate you having me in. Crap. Patrick Melbourne on Twitter wants to know how he can get unblocked. If I sent you his Twitter handle, could you unblock the guy and give him another chance? I was thinking about it more. Yeah, unless he tweeted a picture of a dog with one ear or something. Let's give him one more chance.

I'll send you his handle. I'll consider a moratorium for a while. Okay. And that brings us to the end of our 220th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike. And Greg is at SN590GBrady. Could you have made that any more complicated? That was the plan.

And our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer and Chef's Plate is at Chef's Plate CA. See you all next week. But I'm a much better man for having known you. Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up. Rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow won't speed the day. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away.