Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mike Stafford Returns: Toronto Mike'd #1250

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

In this 1250th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Mike Stafford. They discuss his broken neck, why he had to delete his Twitter account, why he was fired by AM 640, how he's been doing and what's next. And yes, they address the "turd in his basement" comment. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, the Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1250 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Season four of Yes, We Are Open. The award-winning podcast from Moneris, hosted by FOTM El Grego.

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and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his third appearance on Toronto Mic'd, but his first in almost six years, Mike Stafford. Six years? Six years, Mike. Where the heck have you been? I've been hanging around, just doing stuff, if you know what I mean.

You were calling this on Twitter a secret episode. Well, you know why? I wasn't sure you'd show up. Really? So the reason I called it a secret episode was because I was like 50. I didn't tell anybody this was happening. No one knows this is happening because I just thought you might change your mind. Like, I'm actually still surprised you're here.

Well, I told you when I got here, my pot store, because I live in live in mississauga still right and we're not getting pot for who knows when it's been approved but uh is urban bud which is lakeshore and uh i don't know around uh islington or something like that no no that's seven um no across from where the lickbow and the shopper's drug mark yeah like second or third i don't know fourth it's around there no no that's going toward the Lickbow and the Shopper's Drug Mart. Yeah, like second or third. I don't know, fourth? It's around there. No, no, no. That's going toward the bad part of town. I'm talking like 30... Oh, Long Branch.

Yes. Okay, Long Branch. Mike, you're in New Toronto now. Yes. But not your first visit here, so you've been here three times. No, you've changed, though. It looks like a little cozier. You know why?

Even though we're not recording this video, it's kind of made to look better on TV. I get you. I get you. It's like all these changes were actually like hebsey initiated because he wanted it to be a tv show because hebsey thinks tv first or i think audio first and tv is like an afterthought but so we're audio only today but we'll take our photo by the tree and uh welcome back staff thank you and uh thank you for the great lakes i i adore great lakes um You're doing another one of those GLB things.

Well, yeah, we all get together. We're going to have a TMLX 13 on the patio of Great Lakes Brewery. Yeah, a bunch of my old friends together with them a couple of weeks ago, didn't you? Oh, that was at the, so there's two, yes, right. So the Etobicoke location where I have my events, that's like near the Costco in Etobicoke. But they have a Jarvis and Queens Quay location not far from where you used to work. Right.

In fact, you brought this up, but yeah, a lot of your former colleagues at 640 were there. Yeah, they came out with a beer, a 640 beer or something. With Great Lakes. And I think it's because the Chorus Quay is so close to this new location at Jarvis and Queens Quay. But some people, you were shouted out because I had Patrick on the show. Good man.

Patrick. And I asked Patrick if he had any audio of the time you called me a turd in his basement. Yes. Because you pissed me off. Let's do that. Let's address that before we dive into what the hell happened at 640. And then we have a lot of catching up to do here. You pissed me off because you were talking to Lou Skizis uh who had i still don't know what happened with lou and you asked him has anyone reached out to you and not even stafford and i thought

whoa but that's the only time i mentioned you that yes i know okay i know i was just a bitter prick van mike now that i'm out of radio i'm full of joy but you heard me like here's But you heard me. Like, here's why you heard me. Because prior to you even visiting, we'd email each other. Or you used to comment on the old Toronto Mike differently. You used to comment. You would email me. And I got, like, I thought, oh, Stafford's a buddy. Like, we can chat about things.

And then you came over. Yep. It was a great episode. Kicked out the jams once. You came back in, that's the last time you were here. It was 2017. Wow. And you came back to kick out the jams. That's when my mom died. And here, this is funny.

So coincidentally on Facebook, I get these like Facebook memories. And this one popped up from 2017, on this day in 2017. This aired on 640. And you were mentioning the Toronto Mic'd podcast. Yeah, you were down in his basement yesterday. Have you been there? Yeah, a couple of years ago. Did you hit your head?

Me? All five foot seven of me, no. Hey, by the way, you look great. You've lost some weight. Yeah, my doctor sent me to see another doctor who specializes in weight loss. Yeah, you looked at your picture with Mike on his website. Looked good.

Yeah, well, you know, took off some beef. So, you know, feeling all right, looking all right, you know. So, yeah, I'm healthy with that and happy with it. Joe Cocker feeling all right. Well, you know what, Mike? When people see you lose weight quickly, they think you're sick. Exactly. And I was out with David onley uh the former lieutenant governor

and he he said no i saw your eyebrows you're okay so i said hey good intelligence i hadn't had that in uh on my radar but anyway the reason i uh went to uh do the podcast was mike was i was number one curious about the means of production yeah and you know like for very little money right he's out there producing his own interview series and that sort of thing and the sound quality is pretty good it's excellent and he's you know yourself he's had Ron McLean in there you know he's got a few gets that he still wants to get. But you're right. His setup is, my God, we spend as media companies a fortune to, you know, achieve the same kind of sound and distribution. Well, the distribution, I think, is different in that you can't tune them in, right?

You've got to download the product. Yeah. Now, I think that there's probably some of the stuff I'm not really aware of that could get it on your smartphone as it's happening. But I don't know if that's the case, right? Like, I know for myself, the way I use radio, you know, it's usually in the car, right? Yeah. And if it's not available to me in the car or I don't have the technology to get it in the car, it's less useful to me. But I thought it was pretty interesting

uh from a technology acquisition point of view did you get a uh a little six-pack of uh the great lakes yeah nice yeah it was yeah of course you know i mean i didn't was that because he didn't have the sponsorship at that time yeah i guess no it was a good time good it was good to listen to i want to listen to the rest when i get home okay well any you know any pointers you know send them my way back with you tomorrow happy capitalism happy capitalism so that was uh on this day in 2017 may the 4th 2017 yeah yeah god love lou and uh congratulations his daughter, Madeline. Yeah, I know. Good Lord. And if the Russians didn't cheat, she would have got a bronze for the team.

I think so. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Yeah. And, you know, hopefully one day she does medal at the Olympics at the next winter games, but that's incredible, her success. Yeah, she's done very well.

Good parents, Linda and Lou. Okay, so 2017, that's, so you're still like friends with me there. Like you're warm and fuzzy to me. Lou too,, so 2017, so you're still friends with me there. You're warm and fuzzy to me. Lou, too, by the way, who also doesn't talk to me anymore, and I don't know what that's about. So you heard, I don't know,

at some point Lou comes back after he was let go by 640, and you're right, because I reviewed the tapes, because I'm like, why did Stafford turn on me? And then I listen closely, and I say to him,

have you heard from Stafford since you were let go? He says then I move on I don't bring you up again but that I guess triggered something and that you called me a turd in my basement yeah yeah I would have called you way worse if I was serious about it Mike believe me um yeah I don't know I don't know you know we got to address that so that I can feel better about things. No, no, don't take it personally. But I can't believe it was 2017. Yeah. So six years ago, well, that recording is six years ago today. And then the turd in the basement remark, I can't remember when that was,

but it was after Lou was let go. So you don't know why Lou was let go. I have no idea. I know that when I took over the morning show after promising up and down in my first meeting with you here that i would never take the morning show right uh the hosts at the time uh were not fans they were not fans of lou they weren't fans of us politics etc etc so there's a lot of yeah i can say shit right a lot of shit going on uh and i arrive on this show and all of a sudden i learned that they're not fans of

lou so that's why you when i was doing the morning show with supria i did all the lou segments you know i'm not speaking out of turn i mean you might as well you're not there anymore right uh this is true this is true but i still have you know some here i mike you know hertz is dreaming about the place talk to me constantly uh i think it was two nights ago. I dream that I'm still working there. I'm still doing the shows, but I'm not getting paid. It's like I just show up.

It's like Costanza at the real estate office. You just show up. What's Stafford doing here? So still, how long has it been since you were on 640? The last time I was on was the morning of June 2nd, 2021. Okay. I realize now as we're talking, there's so much to unpack here. So let's, can we start with your physical well-being?

Okay. We're going to open with this because you were still at 640 when you broke your neck, right? Yeah. That was the summer of 2020. That was me falling backwards onto some hardwood in our living room. And as you know, I had an arthritic back since I was 22 anyway. And the way I landed was because I can't keep my head up. I landed completely on the first vertebrae in my neck. And it was a Friday night. There may or may not have been beer involved.ed the great lakes yeah saturday uh

i get up i said to my wife i said i don't feel that good but you know i put heat you know ice heat height ice heat sunday still not feeling right but i i booked a couple of days up at the fern end which we used to go to every summer and that was all set monday oh no sunday night when i when i lost control of my bowels and started throwing up i thought okay this might be serious here google didn't help me much and monday morning i said i said to jody i said i i gotta call an ambulance i went in there fantastic people up at Trillium, up on Queensway. And they took me and they took x-rays, et cetera, et cetera. They put me on morphine because I was in pain.

And about seven hours sitting in the fracture clinic, and a doctor came up to me, a neurologist. They just looked at the pictures. They said, you have a very serious problem here. You have a massive blood clot behind the broken, you've broken your vertebrae. I think they call it the C1 or C7. C1 will kill you.

C1's at the very top. C7's at the back. You can fill it with your finger. And we have to do emergency surgery. This was at the height of covid as well right 2020 yeah yeah you know um they said we're we're putting you on the table tonight around 11 30 and call my wife god love her who couldn't come because of covid and they were very honest with me they said this is they didn't tell me at the time that it was 50 50 that i was coming out

of this wow um so i remember calling my wife she was beside herself the next thing i remember is waking up in the recovery room and uh jody was there and the doctors were there and i was in hospital for about a week week and a half uh They wanted me out of there. Because, again, because of COVID, no one could visit me. They were also renovating at the time, so there were no TVs. Thank God. May I rest in peace, Steve Jobs and the people who developed the iPad, to keep me entertained for a week. It was bad.

It was bad. It was off work from middle of July. I didn't come back till December. And they insisted, of course, that I get some sort of letter from my neurologist. Now, again, I don't know if you had a doctor's appointment during COVID or any in your family. I broke my wrist during COVID. Oh, man. You know what the hell it was.

So I had all the time in the fracture clinic. And yeah, it was nuts. And even follow-ups were impossible to get and i talked to the neurologist i said i need a letter so of course for insurance reasons i was on short-term disability that ran out that only lasts six months so i was getting no money and the neurosurgeon said yeah i will send you the letter i'll email it right now and i said said, doctor, by the way, an amazing young man, neurologist. I said, doctor, how bad was it? And his voice dropped and he said,

it was bad. It was very, very close. Wow. Have you ever been on hydromorphone? I don't think so. I'm not sure what that is. The brand name is Dilaudid. No, I don't think so.

It's a painkiller. I was on that. That was hell coming off. I can see why. Is that an. The brand name is Dilaudid. No, I don't think so. It's a painkiller. I was on that. That was hell coming off. I can see why. Is that an opiate? Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's 10 times.

I've been on Perks for a separated shoulder. Yeah, Perks are, Dilaudid is one step ahead of Perks. Gotcha. Gotcha. So I finally came back

to a show that my co-host had quit. Right. Supriya quit the morning show. And quite understandably so. So why did she quit again? I'm only privy to, before I broke my neck, what was going on with listeners and emails.

She was getting some very vicious, vicious emails. The usual crowd, the QAnon morons. I was a cuckons i was a cuck i was a cuck this cuck that cuck this um and they you know they were talking about raping her daughter oh my god um and she's a very cool cool woman i mean she's just one of the i know she comes across as such a mealy mouth lefty she's not she's not i mean she's got her beliefs but she's an incredible woman she was so supportive when i was off but i think she just had it uh chorus wouldn't do anything in fact you know she went on record that their lawyer howard levitt right suck it up buttercup why would you choose a career in a in a medium that you know attracts this kind of, they threatened to rape her daughter.

This is the, you know, so I had a chance to speak to her, obviously, when that happened and then when I got let go. But, yeah, I came back and Supriya was gone. So I was still not even close to 60%, but I had to get back to work. You were mobile then, obviously. not even close to 60%, but I had to, I had to get back to work. Like I need. You were mobile then, obviously. I was able to drive. I was driving with a, with a neck brace on because I was so petrified of getting into

just a minor rear ender that this neck would just snap. And you're still taking these, uh, these painkillers? No, no, no. I'm just doing, uh, Great Lakes and, and Advil now. Right.

Um, but coming off them was tough. Are you off them now? Like, I mean, I've heard horror stories. Yeah, no, I had to, yeah, the sweating, the jerky leg movements. I mean, you hear about like professionals, right? Like a lawyer who's, you know, taken heroin and it all starts with like, I broke my leg or whatever

and I went on like Percocets and then that's like the path. Absolutely. I mean, I can't, I hate going grocery shopping now cause I can't see what's on the top shelf. Yeah. I just can't lift my head up anymore.

The doctor said, this, this is your new normal. This is going to be your life for now. And at least you have a life staff and we're going to be all over the place here. But I, you,

you know, you found out it was like 50-50 when you broke that neck. 50-50. Yeah, I'm glad they didn't tell me that before I went under. Yeah. It was nice to hear it five months later. Did you have a will prepared or no? Another personal question, probably.

But I asked it anyway. Do you need one when you're married? Because it didn't all go to her. I guess so. I guess so. So I need to though ask guess so. I guess so. So I need to, though, ask about something, because I can't remember where this was in this sequence of events. But you were suspended for tweets. And then I remember, because I used to follow you on Twitter. I enjoyed your tweets.

And then all of a sudden, your Twitter account was gone. Yep. That's before you broke your neck. This was the summer of 2019. Okay. So much to cover here, staff. A year prior, yeah. Well, it's all going to be my new book. I had gone to the hospital.

I'd taken Jodi to the hospital. She'd broken her shoulder. Okay, that hurts too. Yeah, everyone falling down in our house. And it was a hot Sunday afternoon. It was crammed back at Trillium. I'm in the ER, and I thought I'd be funny and I made a joke about you know because it was not necessary for it to be that crowded but people were coming

in with entire families right for one patient right and stupid me thought okay I'm gonna make a joke about you know Apu and the crowd of hijabs and blah, blah, blah, blah. Just brilliant, brilliant stuff. Until the next day when my boss calls me and said, we have a problem with your tweet. Obviously you do. And then Canada land got all over it. Yeah, they'll do that. Yeah, Jesse and the boys.

And I was suspended for a week. It was a punch to the gut and it was completely deserved. And I was told to delete my Twitter account. I personally apologized to a number of people. My boss at the time, Jeff said, he said, one thing, Mike, is when I talk to your coworkers, almost 100% support you. They don't believe that in any way you are a hardcore racist. I went back on air. Now, I did sign something, and this is, I think, key to what happened in June of 2021.

So you signed, like, I promise to behave myself. Yeah, I'm not going to do this again. Okay. Chorus was, we can, I guess, so much to cover, but Chorus had gone through its own controversy that same year with a number of people working there, people of color, BIPOC, who were complaining they weren't getting paid the same. They weren't getting the same per diems as other people at Chorus that they felt because of their skin color, they were not able to progress through the company.

Chorus was going through a hell of a time. They hired external consultants to come in and try to fix the matter. Now that's all stuff way above my pay grade. It just happened to coincide with, with what I had tweeted. So yeah, I, I still have a Twitter account. It's private and I follow cops. I follow you. I follow, um, other newsmakers.

So, you know, I also had a blood clot. Your CVT. Yes yes different than what you had uh that required surgery but uh just interesting when you said you had a blood clot and they had to go in and uh you know you had a 50 50 i was just thinking i'm i'm coming off a blood clot as we speak but enough about me staff this is about you no i i want to i want to you know wish you well on that because that must have been a very scary diagnosis it was because it was on my brain and i feel like that's an important organ. Like I'm thinking.

What? More than your dick? Come on. The big three organs, brain, heart, and dick. But anyway, I'm on blood thinners. So there's my story. And I gave, I actually just posted an update on it. You're going in for an MRI?

Yeah. End of May. It's like Friday at 7pm and I'm like, yeah, hopefully the Leafs don't have a playoff game that night. I gotta tell you, mid-90s I was, I had this tingling in the side of my face and

I thought, this isn't good. And I went to see a neurologist and she said, okay, we're going to set you up for an MRI at St. Mike's. It's going to be about four months. Okay, cool. Four months arrive, I go to St. Mike's. It's going to be about four months. Okay, cool. Four months arrive. I go to St. Mike's. I lay down on the table. It takes me in automatically into the machine. I start

yelling like a bitch. Oh, like claustrophobia? I was freaking out. Again, because I've always been in a stoop, I couldn't lay my head down, and the top of the MRI was against my nose. I couldn't breathe. And you started and the top of the MRI was against my nose. I couldn't breathe. Right.

And you started to panic. Yeah. And they pulled me out, and they said, you know, you're going to miss your appointment. I said, I don't care. Get me out of this. It's like a tomb. It's like a coffin. You've had MRIs before, haven't you?

I've had MRIs before. A lot of injuries. Okay. But you, so, okay, so where are we at in this journey here? So, yeah, it sounds like they were hypersensitive to tweets about, you know, Apu. You know, Apu can't even be voiced by Hank Azaria anymore. No, or Dr. Hibbard by Harry Shearer. Right.

So that's, yeah. So times have changed. So you were told to delete your Twitter account and you got a one week suspension. And then you were basically, you signed something that said you'll behave yourself. Okay. Yeah. Probably one of those, you know, two strikes you're out. But so then in the

timelines here as we keep it track so this happens in 2019 2020 is when you break your neck yep and we're so now you're coming you're only at like 60 and you're finished your short-term disability leave there but you're coming back because supriya duavetti has quit and you're coming back to be the morning show host on 640 yeah uh came back in i think december 7th or so um it's interesting that first christmas i was the only regular they they scheduled i think they figured stafford had enough time oh no so two weeks of christmas normally i was taking time i was i was i was a keener um working through january February, March, April, May, it's tough doing it alone. It's also tough doing it when you're, you know, basically disabled now.

Um, and then June arrived in that fateful day, June 2nd. I'd done a morning show where I had interviewed a expert from the university, uh, from Oxford University. expert from the university from oxford university and he was the first one to suggest during covid that we stop identifying variants based on origin like a country indian variant right south african variant uh because of the connotations right okay fine i did that interview went home i'm uh sitting uh doug ford was having a news conference. I was on something called Microsoft Teams. I know it well.

It's an internal instant messenger for corporate folks. And I'm not into that crap. But we used to gather around in the afternoon. We'd all be on our teams. Most people were still working at home. I was at home. By the way, I was the only on-air person for those months who did the show from Chorus Key. Interesting.

So they let you do that, though. I insisted on it. And they, you know, if you follow procedures, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, I just absolutely had to be. I'm an old fart. I mean, 40 years in the business. I need a studio. So anyway, that happened.

So it was top of mind. and I'm watching a Doug Ford news conference on June the 2nd, 2021. And Ford keeps using Indian variant, Indian variant, Indian variant, Indian variant. Now me and my pals in the newsroom, often when we were watching Doug Ford or, or even the, who was the idiot? Moore? Right. The word salad guy we used to talk about. Yeah. We were always having fun on teams, making fun of Doug's clothing, making fun of Doug's sweating, making fun of Doug's malapropisms, et cetera, et cetera.

Right. Here's what I wrote. Indian, Indian, Indian. I said, what's with Ford and the Indian, Indian, Indian? Five bucks, he's going to call it the Paki Variant next. And that was it. P-A-K-I. A word that was growing up in Brampton during the 80s, you know, considered poisonous today, understandably so. It's the equivalent, I guess, of the N-word. Although the difference being that you wouldn't have said the N-word right now.

You would have called it the N-word, but you actually said the P-word. So it's a racial slur for South Asians. Absolutely, because Doug and I are of the same time, and I can just imagine, you know. Anyway, I wrote it, laughed about it, shut it off. But an hour later, Jeff called my boss. Take that down. What? What you posted. he said this to me i get what you were doing and i know you get what you were doing but there are some

people who work with us who don't look on it as funny at all so i took it down five o'clock another phone call this time my boss and one of the heads of hr uh we're very concerned about what you wrote you are hereby suspended immediately with pay we're launching an investigation uh she used the words that i keep hearing all the time that we take this very seriously it's like no one ever took anything seriously until this era and stand by. So they did their investigation and HR called me back on the Friday and they got my side of the story. And she said to me, and I knew I was dead. She said to me, I just want to let you know that we are taking this still very, very seriously. And there's a very high probability that this may affect your employment here.

Have a good weekend. Wow. Sunday night, London, Ontario, some maniac in his car deliberately drove it into a family that happened to be of Pakistani origin. Killed, I think, four of them. I thought, oh, my God. Oh, my God. I mean i mean what i did i did um then uh i got the phone call on wednesday the 9th of june and uh there was the blah blah um your employment with chorus entertainment i just finished 20 years there your employment course

is is now done and i said are you firing me for cause she goes yes i said that's the capital punishment because after i hung up the phone i don't care about my email account and stuff like that my benefits i got a kid a wife i got a pair of glasses here that are three years overdue. All I got were my entitlements, which would be vacation pay. And that was it. 42 years of radio, over. So zero severance? Zero. Absolutely. I couldn't get EI. You cannot get EI if you've been fired for cause. The government considers the fact that it was your own fault. Be like quitting.

All right, let me go back again before we dive into that. So I actually, okay, so the context is particularly in 2023, the context doesn't matter. Like I actually get your joke too. The joke is that this ignor ignoramus uh doug ford he would would call it that because he is the uh like from a different era and wouldn't realize how inappropriate that term is like and i'm gonna and again i'm not here to make excuses for you but i have thought long and hard about all of this but you you might have felt a little safer on an internal chat like

this is not a tweet this is not a face public facebook post no you might have felt like you could you just felt like this is very different than twitter i'm gonna well you speak for yourself i don't want to put words in your mouth but you must have felt safe in an internal teams chat well yeah and especially with people that i've been working with, and we'd all, I mean, they were constantly needling Doug about his weight and everything else that you would consider to be out of bounds. His clothing, his style of speech, et cetera, et cetera. And I thought, oh, I'm going to be with the fun kids. I'm going to say something about Doug too.

And don't I hit the nuclear option? Okay, I think think I want to say Canada Land also had this one too, right? Like a screen cap? Do I have the right outlet? Or was it a different digital outlet? No, this is the next part of the story. Oh, right.

They told me on the 9th when I was fired for cause, I don't know why she said it. She said, Michael, we want to make sure that you do not post or discuss this on social media. Treat this privately, blank, blank, blank, which piss off. You just fired me for cause. I can do whatever I want, but you know what?

I respected it until I got a message from a reporter at Vice. It was Vice. Gotcha, it's Vice, okay. And I said to her, how did you learn about it? Because she got a copy. She. It was Vice. Gotcha. It's Vice. Okay. And I said to her, how did you learn about it? Because she got a copy. She had a screen capture. She had a screen cap.

Right. And I said, how did you find out about this? She says, I can't tell you. I can't tell you. I have to protect my sources, et cetera. I know who it was. And this person and I did not get along. He was probably the only person I did not get along with

for a number of reasons. I know that's where the leak came from. Do you know-know or do you think you know? I know-know. Is this an on-air person? No. I don't want to give any names or anything. It's been two years.

A number of people who messaged me on facebook and stuff like that said that uh man you got stabbed in the back um i said yeah i i guess so i don't know why someone would think that they need to destroy a person when you're coming off a crippling injury and knowing that um you know, I was 60 at the time. I just turned 60 or about to turn 60. Again, there's no excusing what I wrote, but why pick up the freaking phone and contact Vice? Why do that? I mean, just let me die.

Let me die anonymously in the weeds. And all of a sudden, Jane Stevenson of the Toronto Suns writing about it? She's their concert reviewer, for Christ's sakes. And I have not read anything. Anything I have not, you know, the Sony board. I wouldn't read any. I just, I couldn't take the negativity. I was in denial for a few weeks, Mike,

but then, you know, then again, I still had some money. I was in total denial. So I just kind of went, okay, just enjoy the summer and we'll see what happens. Lots of support on Facebook from people, including from people who can piss off as well. You're right on, mate. These liberal woke pricks.

Piss off. I don't want to get into this culture war about what I wrote. So I had that side, you know, hailing me like some sort of proud boy. And I had some people as well saying, you know, you've always been, I mean, Dean Blondell called me a cockroach. I've never really met this guy. Yeah. Don't get me started, Mr. Stafford.

I just realized the camera's not on, so nobody could read my lips there. No, your eyes rolled right back in the back of your head. Okay. Yeah, I'm not surprised. So, yeah, I don't know why that person thought they had to do what they did, but it sort of cemented...

It's almost Machiavellian. It's like we're reading a part of a Shakespeare play here where, yeah, so, again, people can, well, you did it. You typed in that word and you didn't do like, no asterisks. No. And it was literally the, and again, it's a word, you said it, but the P word for characters, you typed it into an internal team. So that is chorus property because you're doing it in there.

Understandably. And they also pointed out to me that it wasn't just a team uh i mean all employees had access to that channel which was a six oh it was like it wasn't like a 640 toronto news so uh you know it wasn't just the seven of us who were online at the time uh that happened but i you know i know uh with what was going on of course at the time with them trying to I know with what was going on, of course, at the time with them trying to fix the previous problem, they had Supriya who was suing them through the Human Rights Commission.

Right. I don't know how that... Yeah, I don't know if that's still ongoing or not. I actually don't know. Yeah, I haven't talked to Supriya in a while. I know she's got some family issues, but... Oh, yes, yes. And that was it.

Somebody decided, let's take this let's take this public and really you know dig dig the guy a deeper grave did you do anything to try to get some severance i mean 20 you were 20 years at the station i yeah you were there for mojo right so mojo launches in i was the only guy to survive mojo right i survived mojo i survived the crap that you call the new Mojo. I survived the crap where they didn't have a clue what they were doing. Toxic. Yeah.

Okay. So, by the way, since we last talked, Andrew Crystal passed away. So I don't know if you were tight with Andrew. Andrew was a weird cat. Yeah. Yeah. He was a weird cat. That was very, there's a lot of them going now.

James Scott I used to work with at CFNY. James Baby Scott. James Baby. Brad McNally. Yes. You know, Don Daynard. Don Daynard. Sweetheart.

They lived natural lives to their conclusion. Unfortunately, some of them were too short. Okay, so you're there for the launch of 640, and your old buddy Fred Patterson was the morning show, and that was Humble and Fred. Freddy and Humble, yep. Yeah, and then that's 20 years. I just did the math in my head.

You're right, it's 20 years you're there. There's them, Ripken, Derringer. Did you ever hear the story of why Ripken was let go? Did you ever hear that story? No, the story I heard was some... Because you told it to me, Derringer. Did you ever hear the story of why Ripken was let go? Did you ever hear that story? No, the story I heard was some... Because you told it to me, but go ahead. It was the All-Star game in Florida, in the NHL. Right.

And he showed up hammered, no shoes. I just heard he made some anti-Semitic remarks with Humble Howard. Yeah, and Renee Roth, another woman who's passed on. He was our general sales manager. That's all I heard was that he came in there like a tornado and left. another woman who's passed on. He was our general sales manager. That's all I heard was that he came in there like a tornado and left. I suppose if we look at everything, Crystal shows up as a replacement of sorts for Ripken, right?

Because Ripken was there from the beginning. Yeah, Andrew, they plugged in wherever they could, really. Right. What an interesting guy. Okay, so you're there 20 years. Yep. You're told essentially your services are no longer required. They cancel your swipe card. Oh, yeah, yeah.

They canceled, you know, no benefits. Well, they pay you for the whatever outstanding vacation pay because they have to do that. But did you do anything? Did you get a lawyer or something and try to get some severance? I did. I got a lawyer who was recommended by another lawyer friend of mine who couldn't represent me because he spends a lot of money with chorus entertainment. I think you know who I'm talking about. He was great. Right. 800 bucks an hour. Wow. I got nothing coming in. Yeah. So we had our first initial consultation. I gave him my credit card number 800 bucks. Okay. We need a $2,500 tomorrow

to cover the rest of the month. The retainer was going to be about 2,500 a month for who knows. And we're in the middle of COVID. Employment lawyers were making a fortune. People getting fired because, you know, they wouldn't show up for work or whatever. The employment law industry was booming at the time. And I was assured that there was no assurance that I could win this thing. That it depends on what the judge is. I've read that proving dismissal for cause is extremely difficult. It has to be pretty egregious behavior.

Pretty egregious. Right. It comes down to the fact where the company decides it no longer can support a employee-employer relationship. And that's what Chorus had decided at that point, which is fine. Anyway, Mike, I ran out of money. And I was looking for contingency lawyers where they would get a piece of whatever money I would make. Right. Because I was owed 24 months. Mike, I was making good money. Yeah. I was making very good money. And talking to a couple of people, including people in employment law, this was as much as a course is a company that respects diversity, blah, blah, blah,

a salary dump. A 60-year-old making the kind of money I was making is a perfect way to get him off the payroll because whoever they brought in wasn't getting the money I was getting. It turned out to be Greg, who's a great guy. So, yeah, it was partially a salary dump as well but i just could not afford um given the fact that because of covet again and everything was being done through zoom what we could have been a very very lengthy uh arbitration but is there

a statute of limitations here like is it too late? No, not yet. Like, if there's an employment lawyer listening who would work with you for, like you said, no money up front, but a percentage of money gained from this process. Lionel Hutz. You'd be open.

Works on contingency? No, money down. I'm Lionel Hutz, attorney at law. Yeah, man. I miss Phil Hartman. I know a few aside, but I know when I used

to listen to you in the car, I had a commute back in the day. It's been a while now, but I would listen to you I know a few aside, but I know when I used to listen to you in the car, I had a commute back in the day. It's been a while now, but I would listen to you do Simpsons trivia and I loved it because I still love my Simpsons and I miss Phil Hartman. Yeah. Quick aside.

Okay, but if like in theory, Mike, if like I got a note from an employment lawyer who would work with you, again, no money in front because it doesn't sound like you have any money. Well, we're going to get into that, but you would be open to talking to such a professional. Am I right?

Yeah, I certainly can't. This contingency is really my only way of looking at things. I can't do the retainers. Right. But I also understand it's not like every disability lawyer will work on retainer. Everyone. Right. Employment law, there's no guarantee.

Disability, usually there's some guarantee there will be some cash. But someone listening might be a fan of your work on the radio. We might be appealing to people. So I'm just throwing it out there. If there is an employment lawyer who would work with staff here, I think chorus can afford

to sever you fairly. And I think the crime that you committed, I feel like you said capital punishment earlier. That's what they call it. And I've been accused, as you know, I've been accused of being a bleeding heart lefty. I bike everywhere. I'm a left-wing pinko.

Well, you got into the woke argument with Peter Sherman. Oh, yes. Well, Sherman, by the way, Sherman's a good friend of yours. Sherman's a good guy, yeah. I want to shout out Peter Sherman. Yeah, he's helped me out as well. I don't good guy, yeah. I want to shout out Peter Sherman. Yeah, he's helped me out as well. I don't know what happened there. I just, I don't know.

A gain in age thing. I don't know. Huh. Whenever I get a phone, because I'll get the odd phone call from Peter Sherman, it's kind of wild when I answer the phone and I hear that voice. I don't think anyone's got a voice quite like, you got great pipes, but that Peter Sherman voice, it just like, it shakes the room. Yeah. No, Peter's, I mean, he's done everything. He's been a station manager, a vice president.

I forgot about my fight with Peter Sherman. Yeah, that was his second appearance, and he felt I was, I mean, I think he told me he wanted to, if you need to do this, let me know, but it might hurt your neck, but he wanted to reach across this desk here and strangle me. Like, he was really pissed off at some of the things. Was that bad? Yeah. This is what heangle me. He was really pissed off. Was that bad? Yeah. This is what he texted me.

But we've made up. We've had nice conversations about you, actually. So yeah, Peter Sherman is a staff fan and supporter. So here I am telling you, you shouldn't have used that P word. I wouldn't have used the P word. No. But I don't know if you had a brain fart

and forgot how damn accessible this Teams was to employees of Chorus. Maybe you had a moment where you felt like it was more of a private chat with a couple of buds or whatever. It's a couple of hours after I finished my morning show, and I'm sitting on the bed in the bedroom watching the TV, watching Doug, listening to the news conference, and we're all adding stuff on Teams that really just wasting time. And I thought, okay, here's a little joke. Yeah. It was funny. It was funny in your head when you cooked it up,

but then you typed it out, and then the rest is history. So you gave them the loaded gun. Like if they were looking to cut salary and get rid of a 60-year-old staff, you sure made their lives easy. And they wouldn't accept any defense. They just, you know, we're taking this very seriously. Did you watch Breaking Bad? Yes.

That line Hank has for Walt. Walt, you're the smartest guy I ever knew, but you can't figure out that he decided what to do 10 minutes ago when Uncle Jack shot him. Right. That was course. Yes. Completely.

They had made up their mind. And again, you had the, I'm sure that this document you signed gave them what they felt they needed to. Yeah, I'm sure that. I couldn't find it to tell you the truth. So it's like the one, two, you know, you got your, you know, slap on the wrist and it's like, be better, Stafford. We can't have this again.

And then you kind of, even though it was not a public forum, it was still enough people at the... Mike, you know what, I mean, 20 years at Chorus and I did every shift they wanted me to do. I got called in over Christmas one year because one of the members of the morning show at the time decided that he was going to take time off

and Lorne Honigman was supposed to come in and fill in. Lorne got pneumonia. Okay. And they called me. I said, yeah, I'll do it. One time I got called in on vacation because Oakley was sick. Right. So they called me.

I came in. I mentored a lot of people. One of the great things about 640, I know it takes its shots compared to CFRB. I never worked with screeners at CFRB as good as the ones I worked at 640. And I will say that I helped mentor and train a lot of them. So I did a lot for that company. I understand that. And to lose it over that word hurt.

Do you find yourself thinking back, like, what if I just didn't send that? Like, are you haunted by the fact that you, like, maybe if I didn't send that team's message, I'd still be there today? You know, I knew the end was going to come for me eventually, not as violently as this one, because of my age.

You know, I was hitting my 60s i i tried to sound younger on the air see i would think it would be i would think talking to professional as you know i've never worked at radio but i i get the sense it's less age and more salary it just so happens that the age and salary go together so typically when you got a 60 year old 20 year vet at the station they're making the kind of money that they don't want to pay for that position anymore. They didn't pay me much when I started there. When I, um, when I was constructively dismissed from CFRB, I was off work for a couple of months and then I got the call from JJ Johnson saying, Hey, we're coming up with a new format

mojo. Right. Uh, and it was Fred who recommended money. He called Stafford. He's out of, he's out of work. And I started and it wasn't for great money when humble and Fred quit. Yep. They opened the bank vault for me. Wow. I had the number one rated show during mojo. It was the afternoon show. And, uh, I know that rubbed some people the wrong way that the afternoon guy was beaten the hell out of the other shows in the ratings,

but yeah, they were so afraid that I was going to leave as well. And that just started, you know, accumulating. And you're right. I mean, the era of big money in radio kids, it's done. Derringer's gone. I'm gone. Humble Fred are gone. Ashby's gone. Blundell's gone.

Aaron Davis is gone. Yeah. There ain't going to be the kind of coin that they used to spend on morning people anymore. It was just, it was a mistake taking that freaking job, that morning job. I loved my nine to nine job. You told me you'd never do it. Yeah, but okay. They came to me with like, it was like one of those paintings with dogs with huge eyes and tears.

Also, I think that everybody knows that at least at least in this market they say the morning show is like the uh the jewel of radio like there's something there maybe for your ego that i don't know if that's even true anymore my listening patterns are so yeah so weird now i mean during covid mornings got their asses kicked because nobody was driving to work yeah no am radio particularly is a traffic jam is uh the best friend of AM radio, I would say. So, okay. So here, we're going to take a little breather here. That beer is still working for you?

Let me know if you need another one. Okay, I'm going to grab you another one. But, well, here. Do you want a pale ale? I can go upstairs to the fridge and get you a cold one. Why would I do that to you? I've already pissed enough people. Okay.

Thank you, man. Again, the secret episode, which we're recording right now, I legit didn't know if you'd show up. one but this why would i do that to you i'm i've already pissed enough people okay thank you man again like the secret episode which we're recording right now i legit didn't know if you'd show up like because of the history because there was the turd in his basement comment and then you seem to you know like no longer be my buddy or whatever so there's that that happened way before your exit there and i wasn't sure that mike stafford would be at the uh door today at noon like i was really happy to hear the knock and then there you were and uh that's why i didn't promote it like i promote everything yeah this is the first episode i didn't promote because it's like i almost think it might be better to just drop this drop this fucker you know what i mean like

stafford you know we haven't heard when was the last time you were on a mic june 2nd 2020 the other thing too is you know people were oh man man man sorry to hear what happened that's bullshit man that's bullshit man you need to start a podcast you need to start up people think they want to hear your voice yeah but it's not like you know oh i woke up this morning and i thought i'm gonna start me a podcast you need equipment and it's also late in the game i think is it not mike i mean you're one of the there's only a million staff but you're not a regular guy here's what i would say to you and i have this conversation almost every day but i was a guy in his basement a turd in his basement if you will okay and then i just started this thing 11 years ago so i that's i feel like i couldn't start this

today like i feel like i couldn't start this today. Like I feel like I couldn't get traction and do what I'm doing now. I couldn't do it if I started it today because I'm just a guy in his basement. But Humble and Fred are having success because of their great producer, but they're having success because they're Humble and Fred.

They're famous Toronto radio people. Your great advantage is that you're Mike Stafford. This is your ace in the hole. But I also know that Humble and Fred also got some starter money. Did they? Yes. I'm not going to get into it. I don't know that.

And that's no knock on them. I mean, they do an amazing job, but it doesn't hurt. Right. Okay. So you mean like, would that be like a severance or something? Like what is a starter money? I know you don't want to talk about it. This would be, you know, going to someone saying, here's what we want to do.

Would you help us get going on this thing? And good for them. Good for them. Did they go to a billionaire by any chance? I don't know. I think I know what you're talking about. Okay. So here, let me just tell everybody.

I got a few little housekeeping things here. Yep. Then I have, we got to get into like, so now that this has happened you got fired in june 2021 chorus lets you go zero severance you can't afford to pursue it legally we'll see if we can fix that but i want to just tell people listening that uh this is mike stafford's third visit the first visit was in 2015 and here's what i wrote at the time because you want to go back and hear it in this 1133th episode, so you were episode 113, Mike Stafford talks about his days at CFNY, CFRB, 640, getting high before his Jeopardy appearance.

And then I don't think you liked me bringing this up, but I didn't know how to avoid it. No, I don't know. I just wish I could get back on. Oh, yeah. Well, and why he fired Freddie P as his best man. I know you didn't particularly love that we talked about that. But at the time, I didn't know how to.

Anyways, I did it. Okay. I did it. We did it. Okay. Then, and I don't think he had a bad time because you came back. If you had a bad time, you wouldn't come back. So 2017, you come back.

That's episode 265. Mike, that's me, and Mike Stafford play and discuss his 10 favorite songs of all time. I loved kicking out the jams with you it was great that was a great day beer you're going to take some beer home with you because you love your Great Lakes also you're going to take home a large

frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta that's dinner tonight it's frozen solid though so you might break your teeth what's this speaker this is cool thank you PalmaPasta for the lasagna. That is courtesy of Mineris. That is a wireless speaker, and it sounds great. I mean, I have

a review coming soon from Rob Pruce, of all people, who can't believe how good that thing sounds. Keyboardist from the Spoons? Keyboardist from the Spoons, who got his Mineris wireless speaker. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Yeah, he co-wrote Romantic Traffic. He's got a co-writing.

Oh yeah, Rob Pruce. I mean, there's been a lot of spoons. We had Liza Fromer here kicking out the jams yesterday and we got into the spoons here. Apparently her first crush was Rob Pruce of the spoons. Oh, he was the cute one. Well, he was a young one. That's why.

He was a lot younger than the rest. He was 15 when he joined the spoons. I know. We had a Christmas party at CFNY back pete and geet's days sure uh it was downtown at a club and the spoons were the and my god their parents were all there and i remember going up to them these burlington moms and dads yeah saying you must be you know gourd's parents sandy's parents you must be so proud of these kids absolutely working with nile rogers for god's sakes i know i know

that came up yesterday too uh because i was complaining to liza that uh i loved duran duran as a kid and i bought the album seven and the ragged tiger which i did love but the reflex the song reflex on that album didn't sound like the reflex that i loved from uh 680 cftr because it was a nile rogers remix that was the one i loved my wife is in that video because it was a Nile Rodgers remix. That was the one I loved. Your wife is in that video. Because it was at Maple Leaf Gardens, right? She was at that concert.

And they had to play that song like eight times so they could get the proper crowd shots. Okay. Drop these fun facts anytime. So where am I going here?

I want to give you a couple of things. So why did I give you a wireless speaker? Because Mike, you're going to listen to season four of Yes We Are Open which is a great award winning podcast

from Moneris hosted by FOTM Al Grego who I'm going to see at TMLX 12 which is May 11th at 6pm in Marie Curtis Park. We're going to have some park bevies and just gather 6pm and there's no Leaf game or J game that night.

So the, you know, it's parted. It's a perfect timing there. So Al Grego has been traveling the country talking to small business owners and he's been collecting their inspiring stories. And if you're a small business owner and entrepreneur like me, you're going to love season four of Yes, We Are Open.

So you're going to do that. I don't want you to show up at the door of ridley funeral home for many more decades mr stafford but they are pillars of this community so here's a measuring tape for you from ridley funeral home insert joke here and we're gonna like right after i shout out a couple more partners uh i really want to get into uh your mental health and how it's been because if i do the math this all went down in june 2001 that's two years ago almost exactly so june 9th 2001 it's 2021 did i say 2021 yeah 2021 is when you you know your life changes here and that's two years so we have have to get into it, but real quick, the moment lab, they're here for you,

Mike Stafford, when you're ready to rebuild your rep, we're kind of doing it here today, but they specialize in public relations and they have a team of professionals that will help you craft your stories and that will resonate with your audience and generate positive media coverage. So whether you're launching a new product, building your reputation,

Mr. Stafford, or managing a crisis, they've got you covered. And I'm happy to introduce anybody to Matt and Jared at the Moment Lab. And when you're throwing out your old tech, your old electronics, recyclemyelectronics.ca. That's where you go to find out where you drop it off so they can safely dispose of the chemicals there. So earlier, Mike, because I knew you broke your neck, I asked you about your physical health. But my main concern now seeing you,

I want to make sure, I want to talk to you about your mental health. Like talk to me about these last two years and just how are you doing? Because you're a damn human being, Mike Stafford, and I just want to know how you're doing. You know, it's weird. It's Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross at the seven stages of dying.

It's the same thing when you get terminated for cause. I was in denial for, you know, about a week or two. Then I was getting all the love. I was getting all the love from my Facebook friends. I was getting all the love from people in the industry. you can't eat love you can't pay the rent with love stuff and it's funny too people will then give you the love and then completely move on you know i want to hear you soon where you're going to end up you're going to start a podcast etc etc it's like i've got no answers for you right now, dude. Um, it comes and goes. Uh, there are some days where I just absolutely nighttime sleep,

sleep, sleep. So I can dream about working. And then you wake up in the morning and you've got that harsh realization that, uh, you don't have a place to go to anymore. I had it briefly when CFRB and I separated, but I was 40 then, and then Mojo came along, and it was the best thing that ever happened was leaving CFRB. This time, it's just like it's so final. The finality is what I can't handle, and I know it drives my wife crazy because she thinks I still have it. I still have that ability to go on and, and make people laugh and make people think and make people

whatever feel good. Um, my dad passed away a month or so ago. I'm sorry, man. Yeah. Um, uh, around Christmas he developed a, it's called vascular dementia. And he, he was not, when my mom passed, he just didn't want to keep going. I'm sure a lot of people out there, and I feel for you folks, I've had a few people saying, especially when it's the dad who loses the mom, they just, they just can't take it. Right. And he just wanted to go. He just wanted to go. He just wanted, and he just passed away one morning and God love my sister who just treated, and she's disabled herself. She's mostly blind. She and dad were living together in Toronto.

He just didn't want to do anything. Dad, we have to go to the bank. Dad, we have to get a power of attorney. No, no, no,

no, no, no. And now he's gone. And now we're going through this crap. That's called probate, which just enriches the lawyers, unfortunately, and the courts. So that still, I don't feel like I've grieved the way I did for mom

when I still had a job and productive, et cetera, et cetera. Dad's gone, and they say for males, you never become a man until you lose your father so uh that aside um it's been it's been tough obviously financially uh dealing with pensions and pensions are so right you think that's your money you think that's your money i i mean i i i've never collected a nickel from ei and then they told me you can't collect it because you were fired for cause pensions well you know we can't release this money because the government wants to make sure you don't spend it so they don't have to

take care of you when you're an old man it's my money give me my money give me my money but they won't do it or they only do it you know based on what the federal regulations say um as for another game i just don't see that happening i i'm who's gonna who's gonna hire me so let's talk money okay so you're out of money is that fair to say yeah yeah so what do you do when rent is due what do you do when it's time to go grocery? I mean, you know what happened to grocery prices over the last couple of years? Like, what do you do?

I mean, you know, I do get, you know, I can get some money through my pension plan and stuff like that. But a lot of times it's, it's just living in, in sheer bloody fear about what to, you know, cause I've still, I've got a 15-year-old, I've got my wife. It's tough. It's tough. And, you know, a number of people have been extremely helpful and extremely generous with me. But, you know, there's a certain limit where,

especially as you said, it's tough for everybody right now. It's tough for everybody. you know, there's a certain limit, especially as you said, it's tough for everybody right now. It's tough for everybody. You know, interest rates are, you know, on the way up. I go to Metro and it's like, holy Christ, when did this become this much? And that kind of thing. But there are a lot of people listening who care for you, that miss hearing your voice on the radio. They love you. They care for you.

And they might want to support you. And I don't want to embarrass you here. You're here and I'm glad you're here and we're having this chat. And again, I didn't promote it because I didn't know you'd be here. But money, if you can't work to make money, I don't know how you get blood from a stone. Can't work to make money. I don't know how you get blood from a stone. If somebody listening who cares about you wants to contribute because they have some disposable income,

would you be okay if somebody emailed you? Of course I would. Look, the mic's there. It's open. And I don't even know if this is, am I allowed to say what sparked this visit, or you just tell me no? Yeah, no.

I just rather. Okay, okay. Sorry, it's just it's fine it's fine but but tell people how they could help you out financially while you figure shit out because i don't i don't actually then we're gonna talk honestly and openly like where do you go from here yeah i mean you know you transferfer, I don't know, Mike. Pride cometh before the fall, Steph. I'm a wasp, for God's sake.

I know, I know. But you've got to feed yourself. You've got a family and you need to pay the rent. And again, you're a human being and these crimes that you committed, you know, let's get some perspective here. Crimes against humanity. Like, yeah, pop open that Great Lakes there. Thank you glb what is an email address and is this you're gonna say

remember this is public so are you gonna in it i don't think you have much to lose here maybe tell people the email address where they could actually like interact e-transfer you some money to help tide you over while we figure out how to get some money coming in for Mike Stafford. Well, my account is michael.stafford at bell.net. It's a legitimate email account. Um, you know,

it's not one of those hotmail accounts, michael.stafford. And remember folks, A before E in Michael. M-I-C-H-A-E-L. I've known that since I was three years old. I forgot you were Mike. I'm a Mike.

I had teachers put the E in front. Oh, a lot of people. Maybe that's why I became a Mike, actually. I don't know. Maybe we'll look back and say, oh, yeah, people, they spell Mike properly. They never spell Michael properly. Okay, so michael.stafford at, what was it? bell.net.

Somebody can email transfer you some money money and i think you'd appreciate it and uh i i would just recommend if somebody has disposal a lot of people do right i was i know listening to humble and fred today talk about would you spend uh would you spend ten thousand dollars just to be at the scotia bank arena to see the leafs clinch the stanley cup and i'm sitting here thinking, like it's almost gross that somebody's going to spend $10,000 for that ticket, right? And then meanwhile, I think you would really appreciate a small fraction of that

if somebody could afford to make your life better. Yeah, it's just, when you wake up and you're uncertain about, you know, filling a grocery cart fill in your gas tank um paying you know rent utilities i mean you don't realize utilities man i'm i'm a bell i've been a bell whore forever right my bill is like 300 and something a month and i know that doesn't make me sound very sympathetic but that that's the reality of, you know. So these are kind of band-aids.

So the band-aid solution, I'm going to fix all your problems, staff. I'm glad you're here. Okay, so it's free beer and lasagna. That's how I can take care of you. But so people can give you money to get you through. Maybe somebody can donate $100. Maybe somebody can give you $500.

This is Mike Stafford. Again, it's michael.stafford at bell.net. Now I feel like it's a telethon here. But let's be like, how do we fix this going forward? Like, how do we create a livelihood for you? Like I've been listening to for the last hour and you're still sharp as a tack. Your voice is incredible. Like you have the goods. Is it because you're in your 60s that you can't get a broadcasting job again? Like I'm just wondering, like, is there no job for a 60-year-old talented radio professional anymore? I'm going to be 63 in August.

I'm 63 in August. The name as well is still Poison. I mean, how many people have you seen, I hate the word canceled because of tweets they did 15, 16 years ago or before Twitter, even something they've posted and all of a sudden they become poison. Some people survive that. Right. This industry though,

I'm, we're talking radio and it's interesting cause you're such a fan of the, of, of the medium that is slowly dying. Yeah. And I'm helping to kill it, by the way. Exactly. Sitting right now.

And I am as well. I'm complicit in this sitting here. Right. So it's not like it's a growth industry. Like, yeah, not a problem. You know, one IT job, I can get this IT job. Not a problem. Not a problem.

Right. That kind of thing. And I'm glad, you know know i was out of the guy used to get emails from people saying you're an old fart get off the air you cuck let some younger guy uh you know and i sometimes go yeah you know what you got a point what am i still doing here oh never mind i worked for it right right why so when i have conversations with people because you'll come up mike stafford there seems to seems to be the two thoughts on this matter, the Mike Stafford situation.

And there is one thought I'll say that I've heard from people who say, this is completely self-inflicted. Mike Stafford did this to Mike Stafford. I have no sympathy for the man. Where I am more of the, like, I'm a more forgiving person. I'm tooting my own horn here.

But I feel like you deserve another chance and i can't hire you for a radio gig but i can broker it like if someone does not want to write michael.stafford.atbell.net and like with i don't know opportunity of some sort or whatever i'm mike at torontomike.com like you can write me i'm happy to like broker something or whatever you know i'm just saying if there's anything out there i don't know but if some broadcasting opportunities some voiceover thing i mean i've looked into that my wife has been pushing uh for voice work um that is a very very tough thing to get into right um again you need tapes since i i have no access to equipment i've got yeah but you can drive here like Like I would donate,

if you needed to record something to make money to feed your fucking family, staff at my door, I'd find there's got to be a half an hour between gigs where you can come in the side door, sit here, I'll record. I do this for Peter Gross.

So in fact, Peter Gross, he doesn't trust his tech or whatever and he needs to audition. And because Peter's often worried he's going to end up living under a bridge. Okay. So I tell Peter, you know, come to the door,

you record here, audition here, and then, uh, you can feed yourself. And, and I would do, I would offer that to you as well.

Yeah. It's just, I wish I had access to some recorded stuff over the years. We did some real, real magic, especially with my buddy Patrick and, uh, Ryan Bonner used to be my

my screener um and we'd beat up on him and stuff and uh tina trejani working with her when supriya was on mat leave so you know there was some magic that that we did together and i obviously have no access to it now i don't know what the hell it It was all posted on SoundCloud. It seems to have gone now. Well, maybe again, I'm interjecting all the time here because maybe there's somebody listening because let's face it, all your former colleagues are going to listen to this conversation to hear what you say. OK, so they all follow you on Twitter. They're going to be listening.

I had a chat with a bunch of these people at that Great Lakes beer event only a few weeks ago. So they're listening now. So maybe somebody's listening. Maybe they don't want chorus to know that they're helping Stafford. But if they want to discreetly share some of this audio that you see, again, Mike at TorontoMike.com. Just, I don't care. I'm not going to rat anybody.

If they haven't noticed, I've been doing this 11 years. I'm not going to rat anybody out for helping. I'm not the guy who screen caps the teams. I'm not going to rat anybody out for helping. I'm not the guy who screencaps the teams. In fact, if somebody sends me the screencap and says, hey, Toronto Mike, write about this and sink Stafford, I have no interest at all.

I don't want anything to do with fucking up somebody's life and livelihood. I also, I forgot to mention, I also found out that two people ahead of me at Chorus at the time went to the HR department and said, you've got to give him something. You have to give him something. Right. And HR was adamant, no, no, we made the decision. I understand. It's all HR departments have become. Human resources used to be there to help you.

departments have become. Human resources used to be there to help you. And now it's all about how to cover the ass of the company, which I understand. When I started with Chorus back in April 2001, the stock was $33. Today, I think it's $1.25. Wow.

So I understand the company has a fiduciary interest to keep my mitts off any severance. But they twice went to HR and said, you have to give the guy something. He's been here 20 years. Yeah, he fucked up. But he's a human being. He's done a pretty decent job. And that's where I would love to be, in a courtroom. I hate to get to that level.

And rarely do they go to that level just to say that, you know, here's what I've done for the company. You know, I, I'm not going to blame my, my broken neck and months of, uh,

you know, drug use with hydro morphone and stuff like that. It wasn't like I was showing up high. It wasn't like I was going home after my shift and popping pills. It was something I thought, Oh, this is a little break. This'll be funny,

huh? Yeah. Doug, look at what he's wearing. Yeah. Yeah. Use the P word. As I said,

one guy, one guy, like Jean Valaitis told me, he said, yeah, you were approaching a red light and someone pushed you right through it. I do feel terrible about all of this. I don't want to make this a pity party.

No, I know. You know what? When I was thinking about the 50-50, you had the 50-50 chance of surviving the surgery after you broke your neck. And I was giving it a 50-50 chance that at noon I'd have a knock on the door and there Mike Stafford would be there. Well, didn't I surprise you, you bastard? I was like, I said, I felt like I was seeing a ghost. I was like, oh my God,

Stafford's at my door. You haven't mentioned the beard, by the way. Well, we're going to take the photo. All right, we're going to do that. I like it. This is like the next chapter of Stafford. I could use a little trim, but it keeps me warm because I can't afford gas.

Oh, we got to fix this. Okay, so you can't. Obviously, you have a broken, you have your spinal. What is the condition you have before you broke your neck? What is that condition you have? Ankylosing spondylitis. That is the arthritis of the spine. This happened when I was in my early 20s.

It starts in the sacroiliac joints by your hips. And basically it inflames the spine so much it grows bone. And your spine just fuses. Mick Mars from Motley Crue has it. That's why he quit the band. Mick can barely stand. And to add to that, a broken C7 vertebrae in your neck.

Let's just say, God love my wife, when we go to any mall or anything, I can do 100 yards and I'm done for the day. So... Do you ever... I don't want to get grim here but like like do you ever i'm just checking in on your mental health again like uh i want to make sure you're okay uh from a mental

health standpoint that you're you just don't give up one day like i don't i don't want staff to just throw up his arms and say i i give up i give up. The thought has crossed my mind. I'm going to be honest with you. The thought has crossed my mind because seeing the disappointment in my wife and before he passed, my father, my family's been extremely supportive of me, but they're also starting to get a little pissed off thinking that there is a way that I can get back into the business and make the kind of money I was making. And it's just not going to happen, unfortunately. But yeah, there's times you just go, what's the point here? I'm worth more gone than here. See, now you're on the danger zone because when somebody decides to take their own life, it's because they've reached this conclusion that the world or their loved ones are better off with them no longer here. Like that is the kind of the moment.

Well, I'm not even thinking of it as like, oh, I'm such a burden or this or this. Like, you know, I've got pension money that I know if I were to, you know, disappear, it would immediately, you you know screw the federal regulations it would immediately go to my wife and she can take care of herself and uh and her sons you know but how seriously are you considering that because i'm a coward you're too you're you're suggesting that your chicken to end your life is that that you're chicken to end your life. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah, and I can't. I talked about my brother-in-law, my best man at my wedding, Tim.

He took his own life. He decided he'd been going through some stuff, he, uh, he made a decision and I went on the air and I was crying. And I said to people, if you ever, ever find yourself thinking of this, think about what you're going to leave behind. Think about, um, it's when someone does that, families start screaming at each other. It's not like, you know, someone's been diagnosed with cancer. Oh my God, we're all behind him. Um, it's just one of those things, Mike, where

I don't know. I don't know. Well, listen to your words there. Like, like, cause, cause as you just confessed, you've, you've considered it that i do have on on audio and that i listen to every once in a while to give my fucking head a shake and realize that um what do they call it a permanent uh a short a permanent solution to a short-term problem right so again uh well, not again.

I don't even know why I said again, except I definitely did, I've been concerned for you at points over the last couple of years. And there was one day you posted something on Facebook that I actually interpreted, maybe because I'm thinking of what Martin Streak wrote when he took his own life on Facebook.

But I read something you posted on Facebook, and I interpreted it as a suicide letter. This is how it read to me. And I made several phone calls. I know. Oh, you know this. Okay. No, it's now starting to... Considering the number of people that night who phoned me.

In fact, I could almost cry now thinking about it, because I'm the turd in his basement who hadn't talked to you in a long time. But I saw this on Facebook. And I made several phone calls to people I felt were far closer to you than I was that could reach out to you. Because I felt like you were intending to take your life that night. That's how I interpreted this Facebook call. It was a bit of a pity party there, but obviously it didn't happen.

But yeah, imagine me thinking, oh, there's nothing wrong with putting something on social media. No one will ever see this. Okay, so how do we make sure, are you seeing anybody for your mental health? You talked about seeing a neurologist for this, and I actually have a neurologist myself, so we're in the neurologist party here.

I have a hematologist too. But do you see anybody for your mental health? Do you talk to anybody? No. Well, I talk to Jodi, my sister, some other people. But, I mean, hey, I lost my benefits on June 9th. Again, I have a pair of glasses here that are being held together by piano wire. All right.

Everybody knows. It shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have ended this way, Mike. It's not over. I know. It's just I'm thinking. And that's one of the other things. Someone will pass away, and I'll think, oh, my God,

I remember the interview I did with him. Yeah. I'll hear a song. Oh, God, I remember interviewing Midge. What a great interview that was. I remember Mickey Dolenz from the Monkees slamming his hand on the table at the end of the interview going, that's how you do an interview. Right. G Gordon Liddy, one of the Watergate burglars before he got into radio and became a right wing

King of radio. We ended the interview at CFRB. He looked at me, he says, you're very good at what you do. I was 30 at the time. You know, I think of the interviews and the good I've done and the laughter I've brought to people. And it's been a long time since I've tuned into talk radio, but, and I've gone on the record and said this, I think I said it to you when you were here your first time, nobody's done this format, format better than you. In my, in my opinion, you are, in my opinion, the very best at this talk radio format. And you had a great blend

i i liked it better when there was the uh the odd simpsons trivia before it became like a city council ttc this that whatever but i you're smart you're uh you're you're funny and you've got a great voice what more would you want in a radio host? But like you said earlier... Reputation, yes. You know, we have a problem here with the reputation. Well, that's the other thing too. I mean, even my wife has suggested,

why don't you hire one of the... They run these commercials on TV about Reputation Defender. You know, clean up. Oh, we saw this in this... It was published. I can't fix this. No, you can't unring this bell. You can't unring this bell. You have to.

And I think you've actually started doing it today over the last hour or so. I appreciate that, Mike. Because what you've done, Mike, is you're owning it. And you're talking about why you did what you did. And I don't think we've missed anything significant in this journey. Mike, I sit and did things in the 80s. And Fred will tell you yeah he did this we all did back in the day because there were no repercussions i grieve for gen z and even the

young millennials i grieve for them because if you fuck up it is never going away, never happening. Fred used to put fake stories in my newscast. And today we'd be gone. See you later. Sayonara. It's no country for old men. Nice quote. So, staff, before we say goodbye, and again, I appreciate you coming over.

And I felt, I did feel during, well, one thing we we skipped but that's fair but uh we basically i felt comfortable to ask you anything and bring up anything no i understand that mike i appreciate it i just don't i just i just feel like i feel like a fucking loser right now um not coming here not talking no i know you're i think you're feeling like a loser because you can't provide for your family. Like, because you don't have, you're not making money to provide for your family. Because you're making, I guess you're making very little right now.

And you live in the GTA. And we all know that you can't live in the GTA without more than a little money. I know that. So we're basically, again, as I close here, we're appealing to people. If you care for Stafford and you want to help him out, just to help him pay some bills and just buy food for his family, michael.stafford at bell.net and spell Michael right, will you?

M-I-C-H-A-E-L. And to those who have, by the way, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But I also understand how tough it is for a lot of people out there. Right. A lot of people. And maybe because that is something we can do now,

but there is, if you have any idea, like, like you're not, you're not lazy. You, you would, you're happy to work for money to provide for your family.

You can't do, obviously I can't get you a job as like a fucking painter or something. Not happening. But if there's something staff can do, because yeah, you're a smart guy. You're a well-spoken guy. spoken guy uh you you promise to behave yourself i promise like if somebody has an opportunity to to hire you maybe and get you a gig and get you working again and give you a sense of purpose

because my fear as we say goodbye now is that you'll realize you're worth more dead than alive and that you might actually do something about that. And that would haunt me. So for me, Mr. Stafford, if it ever gets to that point where you're actually thinking about following through with that call, you can call me. Okay. And talk to me and I'll, I'll reason with you.

And if you ever have a chance to do a voiceover gig for some money or audition for something or whatever, come here on these fucking killer mics. I even have a great 4K camera I can stick on you or whatever. And I'll help you the way I help Peter Gross. Are these Sennheisers? No, these are Rode Procasters, they're called. And they're 11 years old now. I have the original set that I bought 11 years ago.

If I can quote, i know he's somewhat controversial from his last special dave chappelle who i think is a genius but his i think he's walking on eggshells now um his last special he was talking about cancel culture etc etc again i'm not going to get into that crap. He said about taking a man's job. He says, you take a man, you're, you're not punishing him. You're killing him. And I think that's pretty appropriate right now.

Staff, you sounded great. You know, you might not think so, but I think you look great in that beard and i look forward to sharing this picture i think it works for my eldest stepson finney said i like it i look at mike it works for you this is the next chapter of your life we're gonna get you we're gonna get you fucking back to work somehow maybe even a lawyer drops out of the clouds to be your little angel that takes a cut of whatever I think course owes you. And I hope justice prevails there. And I appreciate you coming over and chatting with me now,

now before I shout out the sponsors, I'm not a turd in his basement. Am I Mr. No, you are not a turd in the, you are a, if you can shine a turd to gold, it has happened.

And Michael, I really appreciate you reaching out and helping me out. And take care, brother. And that brings us to the end of our 1,250th show.

Nice milestone episode for Mike Stafford's return. 12.50. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. You can't follow Mike Stafford on Twitter because he's not going to tell you

his burner account. But, you know, you know the address to write him if you want to send a note to him or an interact email transfer. It's michael.stafford at bell.net. You can probably find me on Facebook. He's also on Facebook,

Mike Stafford. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Make sure I give you some beer before you go. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. I have a lasagna for you. Moneris is at Moneris.

You've got your speaker. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. The Moment Lab are at The Moment Lab. They can help you with the reputation management there. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. I'll see everybody tomorrow when I chat with Mary Jo Eustace. After an eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or do

For me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you 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 a day And your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away

Cause everything is rosy and gray Well I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who Yeah I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of grey Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah

I know it's true How about you? Are they picking up trash and they're putting down roads? And they're brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes. And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can. Maybe I'm not and maybe I am. But who gives a damn because everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms me today.

And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine. And it won't go away, because everything is rosy and green. Well, I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain. And I've kissed you in places I better not name. And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour. But I like it much better going down on you. Yeah, you know that's true. Because everything is coming up rosy and green.

Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms us today. And your smile is fine. And it's just like mine. And it won't go away. Because everything is rosy now. Everything is rosy. Yeah. Everything is rosy and gray. Yeah