Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #111

Episode Date: February 18, 2015

Mike and Elvis discuss recent Toronto Mike'd guests, the hiring of Dean Blundell on The Fan 590, the cancellation of Spirit of Radio Sunday on 102.1, anti-vaxxers and more.

Welcome to episode 111 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is my buddy Elvis. You know what the best part about having somebody in here for your podcast is when you have somebody in, right? You welcome them into your home. They're a celebrity. I am doing air quotes. And then you ask them how much they love the theme song. I did that a couple of times.

Most of the time it's kind of like, meh. I'm pretty sure Marsden said it was cool and I had lived up to it or something awesome like that And Damien Cox pretty much told you he thought it sucked Without saying so much The guy in the Rush shirt wasn't going to like that theme song It's pretty funny He's like, hey, you really like my basement? You like my theme song?

No, you know what? First of all, Mr. Smarty Pants A hundred celebrities have come through and I've done that maybe three times. I know, but it just seems like you've done it a lot recently. Can I just, since you mentioned Cox, really quickly do a couple of recants here? So I couldn't remember the name of Anvil.

Yes, yes. I was screaming. I was screaming. I was driving to London. I almost called them Anthrax and I realized, no, that's an American band. Great flick. Yeah.

We finally agree on something. So what's the Anvil movie called, for the record? Oh, I don't freaking know. Well, the Anvil doc is excellent. It's a very good movie. Oh, one more thing. I don't know if you probably caught this, and when I heard myself, because I listen to every episode back, I was mad at myself.

Like, you wouldn't believe when I called the morning show. The morning show, Brady and Lang. Yes, I was screaming out my car. But why didn't Cox correct me? Because he obviously doesn't listen. How out to lunch is he, then? He doesn't listen? A lot of those guys, remember, like, Wilner doesn't listen.

A lot of those guys don't listen because if they're covering a game, they're probably not getting up at 530 to listen to the morning show, right? Right. It's up at noon, right? Yeah, I've been ordered. I can't call because I've called him. I have talked to Marth in a few times since we recorded. We're like friends now. Oh, nice.

I've been invited to his birthday party. Yeah, I know. He mentioned that on his... I got the invitation last week. Sweet. But I can't call him before noon. That's the rule. So can I go through my rundown on some of my observations?

All right. First, tell me... Do you want it to be structured uh structure what's that like right off the bat i just want to know the ocd value of this being episode one one one fantastic okay so tell me though i thought ocd people like things to be round numbers i don't think there's any sort of there's no rule there's no rule i i like it because it's all the same number i thought this is i am so out to lunch on this i thought they like symmetry and stuff so they liked when things were like 110 100 that 111 would would not be like i think no for me it's all the same so i don't i i mean i've never been diagnosed with

anything but i think that and maybe it's not ocd uh that i should be calling it but that's what i look at it as i think there's some tendencies that i have in my life that i like order and i like things in a certain way. Okay, so you like the repetition of one, three times. It doesn't matter what number it would be. Because your last episode, believe it or not, was 99. I thought it was 89. Didn't we do it?

Or did I do 89 as well? Brian Bellows was at 89, wasn't it? You definitely were at 99. I checked the archives. That's right. You're right because then you had Humble and Fred on it. Yes. So 99 and then you come back for 111, which means we won't see. I checked the archives. That's right. You're right. Because then you had Humble and Fred on it. Yes. Right.

So 99 and then you come back for 111, which means we won't see you again until 222. I hope not. I hope not. All right. So tell. Okay. So since you were here for 99, these are the guests who came through. And then I want to hear your thoughts.

Star study. So Humble and Fred do 100. Didn't listen. You should listen. That's really. They really go at chorus and stuff. It's pretty interesting shit. You know what?

I probably, I've never listened to them once. I know, but listen to that. On your podcast or their podcast. But they've never been together on mine. It's different than theirs. They've never been on yours together? Never. Oh, wow.

They've never been on together until 100. Siobhan Morris from 1010 came on for 101. I did not listen. Scott Turner came on for 102 to talk about what we'll discuss as now defunct, his Spirit of Radio Sunday at 102. I think that's the only one that I didn't listen to that I want to listen to. You should do Humble and Fred too. Strombo was 102.1.

Fantastic. Great job. Really, really good. Oh, so this is the review now? I just wasn't going to run down the list. Then you can tell me what your thoughts are. Okay, May Potts was 104. Enjoyed it.

David Marsden was 105. Brilliant. He is, not you. Elliot Friedman. Great. What was it next? I've got lots of comments on Elliot Friedman. Then Raina from 88.1.

Didn't listen. Who's delightful. I listened to like the first five minutes. And Damien Cox. Listened to it all. Great show. Okay. Talk to me.

So we'll start off with, I think, the two best of that bunch. No offense to the other guests, but just in terms of my personal interest and some, I popped a pee there. And some of my, some of the comments and whatnot, just David Marsden and Strombo were phenomenal. I thought you did. You brought your A game. They brought their A game. They were honest. They were open. They answered every question that you had to answer. They didn't sort of duck around a political answer like some of your other guests did that I'll talk about. But I had a lot of respect for Strombo in terms of his honesty and honesty and his, uh, uh, his openness and certainly Marzen. I mean, you made the guy cry twice in the podcast, uh, which, you know,

I poked, uh, busted your balls about it on Twitter, but I think it was, you know, you went down memory lane with a guy like you should with a guy like a broadcasting career like that, that spans decades. What did he say? He started broadcasting in the 60s? Oh, yeah. That's insane. He was Dave Mickey in the 60s. Yeah. It's crazy.

Beatlemania. So just phenomenal, phenomenal work and guests with those two guys. So kudos to you for that. Elliot Freeman. So it's funny because you guys talked about me at the beginning. Of course, I'm going to make this about me.

Yes, we did. And you said that. You had lunch with him. Right, that I had lunch with him. And he said, that's so weird. I would never ignore anybody like that, blah, blah, blah. And so I listened to the podcast, and I tweeted like four tweets in a row to both of you guys,

and he ignored me. That's funny. He never once responded or acknowledged the tweets. And he could have just said, hey, thanks, man. I appreciate the commentary. Maybe he's blocked you. I appreciate the commentary. I don't know. And I was tweeting from my real handle, not the handle that I would

get here. Oh, yeah, the one that gives you some integrity because it's got lots of followers. Yeah, yeah. The one that has lots of followers. Because those guys probably say, oh, this guy's got, let's pretend, 28 followers. Right, right, right. And if you look at my history of the one that you give out here, you know, I'm a maniac. But the one that's the real one is, you know, it's a work one that you give out here you know i'm a maniac but uh the one that's the real one is you know it's a work corporate elvis it's a work one and people like you know

dm me and you don't swear and all that stuff i don't swear i talk about it's also the less boring i'm sorry the more boring of the it is it's the more corporate the one i don't like you're right you're right and and that's a fair comment so um but a great interview with elliot i really enjoyed uh his stories and obviously he's got lots of stories that uh are really relevant i think to you and i because he's come up in the industry at the same time that we were really really listening to the fan like every day did you know about the howard burger burger's dad connection i did not i did not that's interesting so and he's probably the only person who therefore defends howard burger in the way that i've never

heard howardger defended before. A lot of media guys are pretty quick to trash him. You like how I sneakily got in the Berger question? You did. You did. It was nice. It was good. And then finally, our good friend Damien Cox.

Oh, yes. And it's interesting because I know that you're going to bring this up, him versus Wilner. They both sort of have this image of being arrogant or being holier than thou or condescending and, you know, being flippant. Very similar perception. That's my word of the Damien Cox podcast. That's right. But I think, you know, first of all, good on Damien for not engaging in Twitter wars anymore, which is also sad because those were amazing to watch i've absolutely loved those like those those pension there's a club yeah just go after him so hard there is a club of people who have been blocked by damien cox on twitter there's two interesting times in the history of this

podcast where i felt as though you did something that some might not do only two uh yeah and that was uh greg brady comes in here and you play the fucking brady bunch theme song which i thought was a little ridiculous and then you also play that uh blog salming uh clip for for damien who pretended like he had he didn't know what was happening or hadn't heard it or whatever the case may be um which of course is a lie because he's commented about it publicly i believe blo shalmin tells me he has told him that he and his family listened to this like crazy for a week once. Like there's no way he heard it because he pretended like he heard it for the first time. Right.

So this is it. You don't think I'm going to pull my big punches here and play this when I got Damien Cox sitting in my basement? It takes balls, I guess. Some kind of balls. And that was the first time I met the man. I had never met him before. Right. So I think Wilner and Cox,

in terms of the perception with your readers and your listeners, both of them came in with a similar perception, but both of them left with a different one. I'm going to agree 100% with you. I think people really, for lack of a better term, uh, fell in love with Wilner. I think people, Wilner sort of laid it out. At least this is what I took from his podcast. It's like, this is why I, you think I'm an asshole on the radio because I want to have an intelligent

discourse with you. I do not want you to come on and ask me a question and say, I'm going to hang up and listen for your response. He's like, I have no time for that. I don not want you to come on and ask me a question and say i'm going to hang up and listen for your response he's like i have no time for that i don't want you to come on and tell me that george bell is the greatest blue jay of all time and then not tell me why or you know some sort of ridiculous notion right not that that is a ridiculous notion but he's the greatest whereas damien came on and i don't know just i felt as though he was holding back a little bit and didn't and wasn't as open and honest as he could have been. Or maybe he was comfortable with or whatever the case may be. There were moments, there were pockets. I'm talking about tennis.

And, you know, he's got nothing to lose to say that Bouchard and Raonic could win a major. But I felt like you could really see his passion. It's almost like I could envision his eyes opening up wide when he started talking about that. He clearly hates hockey and he wants a different career. What I'll say about this quickly on that note, so yeah, Wilner and Cox kind of came in with the same reputations. Somebody, not me, somebody said I had like,

I restored, no, what did I do? I somehow redeemed the monster with regards to Wilner, like something like that. Wow, that's pretty intense do? I somehow redeemed the monster with regards to Wilner. Something like that. Wow, that's pretty intense. No, not redeemed. I humanized the beast or something. Okay, that's fair. So I humanized the beast.

So intense, but okay. And they came in hating Wilner, and then they listened to my podcast, and they came out liking Wilner. And the general feedback for Cox is they came in hating Cox, and they left feeling validated. Right.

Like they were right to hate Cox, because he is an arrogant, condescending SOB. Now, see, that's part of his charm, though. I like Damien Cox. I've always liked, like when you said, I don't know if you were lying or not, but the idea of when we were younger and getting the Toronto Star delivered. No, I didn't lie. You'd open up the sports pages and you'd look for a Cox column. I would read my sports stuff.

And many of the things that he, uh, says, I agree with, um, he brings a different perspective. Um, but you know, you know what he's not, he's also,

I don't like Bob McCowan plays the, the, uh, nemesis or anti anti hero on the radio, as does Damien at times. I believe that Bob is playing an act and I don't think that Damien is playing the act. I can say as I just spent, you know, an hour with Damien and he's what he isn't is not a warm guy. Like, first of all, a fucking the fact he came over to this guy he's never met.

I mean, yeah, in his basement. Kudos to him. Answered questions like huge. That gets right there. And he lives in. Oh, he lives in Toronto. I don't know where he lives. I think he lives in Toronto now.

But I mean, the fact he came over and did that is awesome. Yep. RG thought he was medicated. I got to admit it. Medicated? Yeah, it's RG in the comments. RG. RG.

I think that, I don't think he was medicated. I just think maybe he was a bit tired, but he still came over and did it. And, you know, he wouldn't wear the headphones, which is, he's a first guest who wouldn't wear the headphones, which is he's a first guest who wouldn't wear the headphones, which is fine. But then when I listened back, I realized he's all over the... It's interesting that he wouldn't wear the headphones, yet he was the... He did say that of all the mediums

that he's been involved with, he likes radio the best. But he told me before we pressed record that he never wears headphones on the radio is what he told me. Really? He said he's the only guy. I find that so strange. I know. You know what's more strange than not wearing headphones, though? Tell me.

Are the guys on TSN radio, I see this more often than Sportsnet or the fan, is they wear the earbuds. Oh, wow. I find that funny. I don't know what it is, because I guess they do the same thing. But they're cheaper.

They've got to cut costs. And they bring their own, I guess. Yeah, they take it out of their own, yeah, their iPhones or whatever. Or Android devices. Anyway, the long and short of their own, yeah, their iPhones. Their iPhones or whatever. Or Android devices. Anyway, the long and short of it is that you had some really great guests. It was a good run. Certainly better than me.

I'm sure the listeners enjoyed listening to them more than they listened to us riff back and forth. And this will be the lowest ranked podcast, I'm sure, in the last dozen that you've recorded. It's got to beat my daughter's. But did anyone ever... I'm not going to ask. You can ask. Is it about my daughter's podcast? Which you didn't listen to? It was a really, really good run and you did some good work there. And

kudos to the guests for coming in and doing this. It seems as though people know your podcast and obviously it's a lot easier to get them in here than it used to be, I guess. I think so. Like Elliot was happy to come over and I didn't think, honestly than it used to be, I guess. I think so. Like, Elliot was happy to come over. And I didn't think, honestly, when I asked Cox,

for some reason I just didn't think it would work. Did you email him or tweet him? Tweeted him. And then he, I think we DM'd the whole thing. And does he follow you now or no? Yeah, he follows me. Oh, yeah, by the way, are you blocked by Damien Cox? No.

I've never, I don't. I'm blocked by Dean Blundell. You are? Yeah, but I guess. Would you want to interview him Cox? No. Okay. I've never. I don't. I don't. I'm blocked by Dean Blundell. You are. Yeah. But I guess. Would you want to interview him? I have no interest. See, see, I know.

Do you want to talk about this morning show shuffle? That seems to be a big cluster right now. Yeah. We're going to go into that quickly here. All right. That's another thing that you do. Since we segued over. You said that a hundred million times, no exaggeration.

Tell me. Of every podcast saying, I want to get to that. I want to get to that. I want to get to that. But do I always get to it? Not always. Most of the time. I have notes, as you see. I know.

Sometimes I feel like you're married to the notes too much and you don't let the conversation flow. I feel like I will change up my order if it naturally comes up. But I do have, like I do homework. And I think what I ask, because my target audience for this damn thing is me. And I'm thinking, if I i'm listening like if i don't play that for cox i would be pissed like i want to hear what there was what there here's here's one criticism give me one because i would

have loved this tell me because if anybody's gonna rip anybody it's gonna be damien cox he threw bruce dobigan under the bus hard with one comment and you let it go and i just would have i would have jumped on that and said and i i know would have could have should have and i'm judging you and i was not in the situation myself but i would have loved to have hear what the background is because a lot of people apparently don't like bruce dobigan uh yeah you're right here's the thing i would have loved to hear the background because someone else said i was too easy on Cox. I got a few comments. But again, this goes back to the Todd thing. You're too easy on Cox. But Cox said, he made a comment that when the Clarkson deal was signed,

nobody was crying bloody murder. Wrong. Yeah. So, I mean, first of all, I didn't have my, like, facts. I don't want to say it and say I can't tell you who said it or what, but I'm pretty sure. Basically, I did let it go. But one of the things I got to say is when the guy's sitting like you know two feet from you that's why i and he's in your basement

and he's come over and he knows people you'd like to have come on etc etc like i honestly could beat him to shit and like interrogate him like he's on the in court uh but then like try to get the next guy to come over like well that's why you have to, that's why I'm surprised that you put the blog. Saw me and thing. I thought to me, that one's okay. Those two are okay to me because they're a fair game because they're fun to me. They're fun.

They're not mean. I know, but I think the blog saw me and one certainly is mean. And I think the Greg Brady one is just like, fuck, how many times has he heard that in his life? But not on my podcast. Oh,

and down goes Brown is online, too. He says it's Bloge Salmin. For fuck's sake, these guys. Just have a regular name that people can say. Did you watch... Okay, so that one that Carol the Bells with Cox and Berger was Bloge Salmin on his own. But did you watch the videos that Bloge Salmin did with Down Goes Brown?

I've seen some of them. I don't know if I've seen all of them. The 2010 Canadian Olympic men's hockey wrap? I'm sure I have. Okay, dude. 2010, that's five years ago. Yeah, 2010. I don't know if I can remember that. You haven't done them in a while. There's a few. Okay, two, just do me a favor. Seek this out. You want me to go watch it again

is what you're telling me? The 2010 men Olympic wrap with Crosby and Ginla is magic. It is fucking brilliant. All right. And the other one I really like was when Friday came out. Friday, Friday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen that one too.

The Reimer one. You got to be starting Reimer. Yes, yes. The French guy. Is the Olympic one post or pre-victory? Pre. Pre-victory. It was like, yeah, it was just wicked.

You got to get that. Okay. There. So let's talk quickly about some big shit that happened since your episode 99. The Fan 590 has hired Dean Blundell. Like, I know you don't want to talk about Blundell. We got to talk a bit about Blundell. By the way, guess who the next guest is going to be?

Dean Blundell. I wish. I've asked him and he politely declined. Of course. Well, he blocked me on Twitter, but come on. You didn't have to block me on Twitter. You could just politely. I'd hardly go at him via Twitter ever.

Anyway, Jason Barr. Do you know Jason Barr? I like Jason Barr and I like Biggs as well. I like their show, actually. I like their show on 97.7. In North Oshawa, do you get a St. Catherine's Day? Fuck off. Do you? You're ridiculous. I'm not. I like their show, actually. I like their show on 97.7. In North Oshawa, do you get a St. Catharines station? Fuck off. Do you? You're ridiculous. I'm serious.

Of course. I don't know if that's an of course. Do you get The Rock here? Yes. Fucking asshole. It's Toronto, though. No, it's not. St. Catharines is not Toronto. The Rock is broadcast like five minutes from my house. Do you get that in St. Catharines? I'm sure you do. But how are you so confident? What do you mean, how am I so confident?

These are big radio fucking stations. I know, but this is a good geographic distance. I just don't think it's a silly question. You're insane. It doesn't drive down to 401. It goes across the fucking lake.

So you're telling me it's silly to even ask if a St. Catharines station can be heard in North Oshawa. Absolutely. Did you never listen to Howard Stern when he was on the Buffalo Channel? Yeah, but it was tricky.

From where I was commuting, it was tricky. It was not always clear. Okay, fine. Can we get Stokely in here to describe radio waves to us? I don't think he knows that. He only knows audio. Well, he doesn't know that very well either. I really gotta meet this guy. I keep busting his fucking balls.

Eventually, he's gonna think that I actually don't think he's good at what he does. He's in Niagara. And he's always. Scotty, turn him in first. Yes. I was going to say he's always traveling with curling and shit. Oh, by the way, quickly on Niagara. Real quick before I forget.

Rick Hodge has promised to come in on a Friday. He hasn't told me which Friday. Rick Hodge will come in. And that'll be very interesting. Talk about a love-hate relationship with Toronto Mike. No, but not much hate. We had a bad start. And then we became warm friends. And now'll be very interesting. Talk about a love-hate relationship with Toronto Mike. No, but not much hate. We had a bad start and then we became warm friends and now it's very warm. But I thought he

went away for a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think because we had a fight. He's just a different kind of... He's a different cat. He's a cat. But I use that term because of his 17 cats he had. He has 17 cats? It was something like that. Holy shit. But as Colleen Rusholm told me,

it's because he has like a special permit because he had a big estate. Because I think there's a law. You can only have like X number of cats in this city. Really? You can't have, it's illegal to have 17 cats in Toronto. Really?

Yeah, I'm serious. Do you want to check your fucking notes on that? I know this for a fact. Because at some point there was a cat lady and I read, and I think it was a star, they did an article about how you can only have, I think, four cats or something. Like there's a maximum. At some point, there was a cat lady and I read, and I think it was a star, they did an article about how you can only have, I think,

four cats or something. There's a maximum. True. But this is like, he had an exception because he was up north in some big plantation. But anyway,

Rick Hodge is coming in. He was growing tobacco on his plantation? I got approval, believe it or not, from CBC that Matt Galloway can come in.

I heard you comment about that, that he had to go through the whole PR and you had to get interviewed. I got a lot of questions and I'm like, just listen to the Strombo interview. Just listen. They're here. What was it they wanted to know?

What you were going to ask him? What was your purpose? Mainly subject matter and what the format is, etc. We shoot the shit for an hour. Here, listen to one of the 111 that are out there. Do you think this is a common thing that they do, or is this a result of the Gian Gomeschi thing

that they don't want you talking about that? Did they mention Gian Gomeschi in any way? No, they didn't. I wouldn't go hard on Gian Gomeschi anyways. I even purposely didn't bring it up with Strombo too much because I felt like I don't want to, like, hammer this with Strombo. Well, maybe what they would be concerned about

is that you'd ask him for his opinion on it, and they would get all, yeah! It might come up organically, gently, but I wouldn't make it like a half an hour. Right. I don't think anyone cares. It's not like Matt Galloway was doing it. He's been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion at this point, so no one really gives a shit, I don't think. No, I mean, I have more questions about okay with uh amanda lang they made a rule there's a new rule where on air people at cbc are not allowed to take money for

speaking engagements have you heard this is it speaking engagements or is it is that what it is i believe so i'm not allowed to take money for speaking engagements either believe it or not who would pay you my company that company i work for but they would pay you oh i saying, but you mean you can't go speak at like the Royal Bank of Canada. I can't go speak at some conference where they would generally give us an honorarium to the speaker. Like you're doing that podcast thing. Yeah, which pays lots of money. Right. So if you were, let's just imagine this podcast had a sponsor, right?

So the sponsor owned the show and you were the host. Right. And then you got invited to go speak at this podcasting conference where they were going to pay you to speak. Right. If that was me, I wouldn't be able to accept money to speak. Okay. So you have the CBC, though. I mean, they made a lot of money, apparently.

Like an Amanda Lang would do some event maybe sponsored by RBC and she would get paid, you know, whatever. I don't know, $5,000 or whatever. And she would do some event maybe sponsored by RBC and she would get paid, you know, whatever, I don't know, $5,000 or whatever and she would do her speech. That is no longer allowed because then, of course, when you're nice about something RBC

is doing on the news, it's all tainted and biased and it's all like, what's his name who got... Brian Williams? No, I'm thinking

of the Canadian guy. Oh, Leslie Roberts. Leslie Roberts. Was it Leslie Roberts? Yeah. That's how long it's been since we recorded. There's old news now that we never talk about. Leslie Roberts. So Leslie, it. Was it Leslie Roberts? Yeah. That's how long it's been since we recorded. There's old news now

that we never talked about. Leslie Roberts. So just like Leslie Roberts type shit. So where was I? Oh yeah, so Matt Galloway is allowed to come on. And Kelly Cotrera is coming on. I don't know if I mentioned that, but she's an old friend. I don't think you did. So I am going to chat with her about her 102.1 and CBC days and etc.

etc. Okay, so let's talk quickly about this fan five 90 change. So do you listen to the fan five 90? I do. So it's the only, probably the only station that I listened to when it's not serious. Brady and Walker, because it's not Brady and Lang hasn't been for a year off,

off, off Mike. I got to tell you about this Lang character, but I don't want to put it on the right. Okay. So Walker and Brady are... This is the weird part. Brady's for sure moving to 1 o'clock

and Walker's probably moving, but the ink has not dried on this contract. We don't know what's happening. It's not 100% yet, so let's not report it as news, but there's speculation that Walker will follow Brady to 1 o'clock. But there's also speculation that he has already auditioned and done tapes with Dean Blundell to join his morning show.

Oh, that's for sure, because that was in the press release. It was in the press release? Yeah. Cora said Walker was going to stay in the morning with Blundell and company. That is what Cora said. But since then, we've learned through rumbling that Walker might be going to 1 o'clock. And they might be bringing in some new people for Blundell to beat up at in the morning. So what do you think of Blundell?

I think it's a bad move. Why? Because I don't think that he is he as somebody who is just a little bit outside of the target market, I think, for the fan, that 18 to 34 demographic. So I left that demographic, you know, a couple of years ago, say. I have no interest in listening to him whatsoever. If he was going to do the fart jokes and the, you know, the shenanigans morning zoo kind of shit, fine. But I don't want to hear that when I listen to the fan. When I listen to the fan, I want to hear intelligent sports talk. And I want to hear good interviews.

And I want to hear, you know, the shit that's going to get me from my house to the GO train station or my house to my client office, client visit that morning. And Brady and Walker gave me that. Brady and Lang gave me that. John Derringer didn't really give me that. John Derringer didn't really give me that. And as much as I like John, I think John is better doing music and doing morning zoo-ish kind of stuff. And that's where Blundell belongs, in your opinion. I think Blundell belongs on a radio station where he plays music and does fart jokes and, you know, things in the morning that or even in the afternoon, for that matter, that he does well, tastes aside. But he's obviously an accomplished broadcaster.

There's no reason why you would be in this business and make as much money as he has for as many years as he has if he wasn't a good broadcaster. The fact of the matter is that he is a good broadcaster. I think the real question is, is the Toronto market, is there room for him left in the Toronto market? And maybe he needs to move. And my other question is, will his young followers go to an AM station?

Like, I just don't even know if the kids know about AM. Well, even if they know about AM, it's not an AM station where they're playing music that they want to hear. They're talking about, you know, the Jays and the Raptors and the Leafs and stuff. And, and, you know, I don't know. I just don't see it as a, anybody can reinvent themselves. So let's give them a chance, I guess. But I really have no, I don't have a lot of time. You'll have to listen and let me know because I never hear any morning radio. So you're going to have to listen and then come back with a review. I'll listen to like maybe 15, 20 minutes's all the time right and and because that's all the time that i have in the morning because then when i get on the train then i'm listening to

howard so right um it's uh i don't know i really i question why the move needed to be made at all given the the ratings in the, everybody was doing great. I won't name names. I know a little bit. I actually have noticed by doing this podcast, I'm making lots of inside friends. That's one of the side effects here. There's an executive at Rogers who has been desiring

the 14, I hope I get the right number, but Blundell had a 14 share at his peak on 102.1 and that's apparently a massive number. And if they could get half of that, they'd be so happy. They just want the Blundell audience he was delivering to 102. But there's one show on AM that does that. I shouldn't say AM because I don't know what 1010 and 640 do,

but I am assuming they're not doing anything compared to the fan. There's one show that gets the biggest book and that's Primetime Sports. I gotta get Bobcat on this podcast. Everything that's not happening. Why not though? I bet you any money that never happens. His wife is a Humble and Fred fan. Don't you think I could just go through her? That never happens.

Now it's my quest. I'll listen. Fuck, I'll camp out. I'll be here. I want to meet that guy. His entourage shows up as security guys. I love Bob to me as a legend. But yeah, I don't know. I just don't see it working. Well, I think they're going like,

this is a big pass to get the old Blundell audience. He was freaking popular in the 18 to 35 male, and fan is a male-targeted station. So males 18 to 34, we're listening to blend down on one Oh two. And if they can get like a, a chunk of that pie, they'll be freaking happy.

Speaking of males, did you see that Barb DiGiulio tweeted last night that she was doing some sort of sex show on the radio with, uh, like a Sujo Hanson type sex with Jess. Is that, is that what it was? I saw the tweet.

Yeah. Yeah. So I was, I was excited. I was like, I would love to listen to that. I know. I love Barb DiGiulio. So do I. I met her a couple of times. My brother Steve was disappointed in her episode because

he said she held back. She was very careful. She was in the middle. She was trying to get a new fucking job. I know. Well, weren't you going to tell me about the people who held back? I told you that Cox held back, I felt. Oh, okay. I felt that Cox held back hard.

Because one thing is, if you have a chorus employee in that chair, and then you're talking about another guy like Derringer, they'll always hold back. It's like... Well, someone else... Erin Davis said that she hated Derringer, didn't she? Yeah, but she's Rogers. Oh, so she can say that. They just don't shit on their...

They might do that. And she's Erin Davis. Right. She can say whatever the They just don't shit on their, they might do that, and she's Aaron Davis. Right, she can say whatever the fuck she wants. But most are careful not to piss on the label mates. Which makes sense. I mean, the fucking industry

is so small. I just talked about how, you know, I didn't think that there was room for Dean in Toronto. I just think that Dean Blundell is, he's got a lot of baggage, and I don't think stations

are ready for him, and this is his way of trying to reinvent himself at the same time. I don't know if it's the right move. I think this move also is part of a big bunch of dominoes that had to fall because I believe Rogers TV poached Tim and Sid. So what I think, I think Rogers TV basically poached from within their own stable, Tim and Sid from radio, which then caused a need for a shuffle. And then, you know, the brains get in the boardroom, and then they're like, well, why don't we move, you know, Brady to that

spot, and then we can bring in Blundell, who they've been talking to forever. Blundell's dad is like a long-time, like, Rogers exec, too. If there was, aside from Bob McCowan, the one guess that I would go 13-year-old

girl crazy over Justin Bieber for would be Tim and Sid. Together? Together. Is that possible? I fucking love these guys. That is the one show that if I can, I will get to a radio and listen to because they are so fucking funny. They're so amazing. The way in which they set shit up. No, they're an entertaining duo. They're so amazing. The way in which they set shit up.

No, they're an entertaining duo. They're fucking amazing. Okay, but then, so they're poached by TV. Now, of course, my personal feeling is they're going to go off and do this television project as like a grooming thing to kind of be the next, I think, Tim and Sid will become the new primetime sports when McCowan's gone.

Yes, and I would agree. However, there was another name that was mentioned to me as I was DMing someone over the weekend. I don't want to mention because I'm not sure. I tweeted him and then he DMed me, so I'm guessing that he didn't want to comment publicly about it. Is this a famous person? Like a locally

famous person? Well, you would know who he is. It's Greg Brady. And this person mentioned that one of the names that he's heard or has guessed is that Greg Brady would be the person to be taking over primetime. Yeah, I've never heard that.

I'm not sure if I agree with that. I've never heard that, but Greg's a nice guy, I just want to point out. He's a very nice guy. Very nice guy. Never heard that one. What do you think of D. Blundell joining the fan? You know what? I used to listen to 102.1 in the mornings when there was a show called

Humble and Fred. I had no idea. They moved to 640 and I was like, ah, shit. I liked the music on 102 and I didn't want to go to an AM talk station. Blundell comes in and I actually listened to Blundell in the beginning because I wanted to stick

with that station because I liked the tunes they played. I hated his humor. Like it's not, nothing personal. It just was not my cup of tea. It was just this frat boy,

like fake, I didn't like it. It was just not my style. And I couldn't, so I stopped listening and the only times I found that show listenable was when they had

a substitute host. Like Strombone. Like Strombone, yeah. And then I was like, fuck a substitute host. Like Strombo. And I was like, fuck, this is how it should sound. Strombo would have been the best morning guy. Strombo's bigger than that, though. Now he is. He was offered the fan morning show. He told me that. And I think he told me that off mic. And I don't even know if I'm in trouble

now for that, but he was offered the morning show. But I also heard from Elliot Friedman that Humble and Fred were being promoted for the morning show by Bob McCowan. Yes, he mentioned that on the show. Quite the little nugget there because I shared that clip with Humble and Fred via email and they play it all the time because Elliot Friedman calls them geniuses in that clip. How much did they have to pay you for the rights to play that clip? Fucking right. I hope he didn't give that away.

They don't work with real money over there. That's Cheryl money right there that you're giving away. That's right. For fuck's sakes. That's funny. All right, so I don't know. So it's not my cup of tea. I don't listen to Brady and Walker, not because I don't like the guys,

but because I don't listen to morning radio. Well, I'll give you a, for whatever it's worth, when he starts. Who announces something like this months in advance either? That's also kind of weird. I think it was leaking. When he starts, I will give you the 411. I'll give you my review of Dean Blundell so he can block me on Twitter as well. One more radio story that you will be less interested in

really quickly is that people my age, and I know you're a little younger, but... A year younger, I think. Two years. People my age were very big fans of Spirit of Radio Sunday on Edge 102. That's right. Because they were playing tunes we don't hear on the radio that much,

and we nostalgically remember. Which I don't understand. Like, listen to your fucking iPod then. Well, that's the thing. You don't... An iPod, I know what's coming. Like, I find when I go into my playlist and shuffle, like, yeah, all the tunes I like, but they were all pre-selected by me.

Sometimes I want somebody like Scott Turner to be like a tour guide, and maybe here's a nugget you haven't heard in a while, and you're like, oh, fuck, holy smokes. I like it when somebody like Scott Turner picks out the tunes and says, here you go, and tells stories about them. That's what I like. I don't get it, but fair.

Fine. And I liked it. And apparently the problem was, it was very well liked, this show. I am told, I phoned Scott Turner after the news came out they were canceling it, and he was very nice and told me very honestly that it was the most popular show on the station. He says it had the most ears according to the most recent ratings book.

But when you just look at 18 to 34 and 102.1 has made a decision to only care about that demo, like only, they did not do that well. So basically they had to kill the show because of a lack of 18 to 34 interest. I don't think that that's any different. If you listen to what David Marsden said about the early days of CFNY, that's who they catered to. And so I don't think that's any different now. I think it's different.

No, I'm not even thinking, I understand. I think it's different because you're older, right? And so you're kind of like, shit, that sucks. I'm out of a demographic that they're appealing to. When in reality, that's the demographic they've always appealed to. Yes, yeah, sure. Now though, it's full number of graphic they've always appealed to um yes yeah sure now now though it's full 18 to 34 yeah i'm just old it always was full throttle though uh yeah but you're listening to david marz in that clip saying it's a call to arms as you called it appropriately and saying that you need to write all these letters you

think someone like us right now is gonna fucking do that shit no we don't fucking care about that we got kids we tweet job we a mortgage, we got all this shit. That's stuff where, you know, you come home from high school and you're like, I'm going to write a fucking letter to the CRTC. We got to talk faster and do some rapid fire chat here real quick. All right. Right. So do you know any anti-vaxxers as we now call

them? I do. Do you? I do. Okay. Real quick, set this up. I want to hear about this anti-vaxxer but I'm hearing about the anti-vaxxer controversy but I can't point my, I know one person who's anti-vaxxer and she's never procreated and she's crazy anyways. And I know her because she's related to my wife. But I honestly don't know, like any personal friends or anybody who is actually against vaccines for their kids. So tell me who you know. Is it really I guess what I'm wondering is, is there really this controversy

or is it like a media thing? Because I don't think there's that many anti-vaxxers in Canada. Yeah, I think there is. Yeah? Aren't they all in the Southern USA? No. Okay, tell me.

I used to work with a woman who was anti-vaxxer and she would, it generally played out like this. The company would send out an email in the beginning of the fall saying, here's the day of our flu clinic. That's different. And she would reply all to the entire company and tell everyone why the

flu vaccine was something you should not take. And here's the reasons why. It is interesting, I will say that she's not constantly, but has frequently posted things on Facebook as to, you know, why vaccines in general are bad, except for now when the measles stuff has happening, she's suddenly now silent about it because she knows that she's just going to get. I now need to change my premise here. I actually, I was not including the flu vaccination. I do know a lot of people who are against like Humble and Fred, for example, infuriate me when they go on their radio show and talk about how they're not getting the flu shot because they never get the flu. I think this is their argument.

So my point is, I guess I'm referring to everything but this flu shot. I do know a lot of people who don't believe in the flu shot, which is silly. You don't believe in science. Like you're some scientist who did a bunch of studies and realized, oh, this data is false. It's actually whatever. But I'm talking about like the measles, mumps, rubella stuff and all that stuff. Yeah, she would.

So this is, okay. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. Because it has mercury in it, which it doesn't. And if it does, it's very, very minute levels. And it's just bad for you. Tell her to avoid sushi too. It's ridiculous.

I equate it to the people who go up on Facebook and say, hey, it's really hot today. Or hey, it's really cold today. Global warming doesn't exist. Yeah, I know. First of all, global warming, hey, it's really hot today, or hey, it's really cold today. Global warming doesn't exist. Yeah, I know. First of all, global warming is not what it's called. It's called climate change. And B, would you not consider-

But they're two different things. They do, yeah. Global warming exists and climate change exists, but they're different. Like climate change is the macro, more macro than global warming is, correct? It gets, okay, well- Because climate change is all about

climate's everywhere changes, not just about things getting warmer. Because you mentioned that the average temperature of this time of year is minus one. And if you look at just sort of very, very micro, why the fuck are we at minus 43 with the wind chill for like three days in a row? Very interesting study that it's the melting of the polar caps

that is causing the deep freeze. And I'm not going to pretend I'm a doctor who can explain. I mean, a scientist. A scientist. But, I mean, the climate, the global warming, weirdly and strangely for a lot of people's feeble brains, is causing the deep freeze we're in right now. Right.

But anyway, yes, the same people who are that, exactly. These people just decide to shit on science periodically for no particular good reason. Did you listen to the very awkward CBC interview between the vaxxer mom and the anti-vaxxer mom? No, I did not. It's been all over Facebook. And listen to the audio clip because it's very awkward.

The host goes right at this woman. And yeah, it's a very awkward conversation. How much weight have you lost since the vegan running lifestyle kicked in again? I don't know. I'm looking at your face. If you look at your face from the first episode you recorded here, okay, it was twice as big. So I work with a bunch of salespeople. And of course, it's all about numbers for them.

And a sales manager came up to me and was like, holy shit, man, how much weight have you lost? And I'm like, I honestly don't really know. And he's like, give me the starting number and give me the number you're at right now. And he came back to me a few minutes later and he's like, you've lost 43% of your body weight. Oh, really? Yeah.

I don't even know how to calculate that. Much more than I would have guessed. I really have no idea how to calculate that. I'm bad with percentages, unless it's something that I'm 100. Just looking at it, because I'm pretty good at this, but you look like you're 50 pounds less. I'm more than that. I have 169

pounds, I think, is the last time I weighed myself. 169. Which is an amazing number, by the way. It's very good. See, maybe I would like Dean Bowendell. Fucking sense of humor like that. Yeah, we'll see if his show is the same.

It can't be. I don't know. It can't be. I don't know. You can't have jokes like that. I mean, you can. There's nothing stopping him. I didn't even hear his trial.

Like, I didn't hear his trial even. I was just told. Was it live? I don't think it was live, was it? Yeah, he did some live shows. Like, he filled in. Yep, he did some shows. In the morning, though?

Not in the morning, but it was on the fan. Like, it was clearly like a test drive. Weekends? No, just, I think just someone was maybe, I'm going to guess like a Jeff Blair goes on vacation and they have like Blundell.

I would have liked to have listened. He also did 1010 shows. Uh, that didn't go anywhere, but the, uh, we're back on Blundell except, um,

we love him apparently. Yeah. Real, since, since we haven't recorded since 99, do you know, I went to the gold medal game canada versus russia did you know i had tickets to the semi-final game that i did not go to but

the canadian semi-final or the other one uh it was the other one okay that yeah i was thinking like if i had a good if i had a ticket for a non-canada junior game would i go and if i might go to the gold medal if i didn't have because i was going to that gold medal and i decided i'd go regardless it's hard to want to go to a game when... Like Switzerland and Russia or something. Especially the gold medal game when they would have been knocked out earlier than you would have wanted them to, right?

I mean, I got these tickets from TELUS and TELUS are awesome people for that. And it's like, at the time, we hadn't been to a finals in a long time. And I was thinking like... Six years, was it? Since we lost one, I think, wasn't it? Yeah, something like that.

And I'm like, this has got to break my my this could be the best moment ever or this could be like oh i got to get my ass to the acc for a few hours like it did break perfectly because i mean it was even an amazing game and it was the best experience to be there and it was great seats everything was perfect like i scripted it but it could have been like very underwhelming well i want to i want to thank chevrolet for my tickets um and see we do have sponsors yeah tell us in chevrolet that's right um i i would have loved to have gone to the game because i haven't been to a sporting event in a long time including tfc um but uh little charlie is uh you know it's it's difficult to leave your wife the problem is you're disappearing three children that she needs to take care of.

And it's like, hey, I'm going to go have some beers and watch a fucking hockey game. No, your problem, I believe, is not that. I believe she would be fine with you, of course, going to a hockey game like that. I think it's because you disappear for weeks at a time. Like, I think this is it. That could be it, too. You disappear for weeks at a time and leave the country. I do.

And then so when you are in the country, you can't, oh, I'm going to take this valuable Sunday or whatever, Saturday or Monday, and I'm going to disappear for five hours. You're right. And I did that to you over the holiday weekend too, right? I really wanted to come and record earlier. And then I, in my infinite wisdom, I said, hey, I'm not working this weekend. Why don't I do something on the weekend? And then I was like, you know what? I never get to see my kids.

Is this travel schedule going to stay like this? I haven't been on the road in a long time. I went to LA for two weeks. So now I'm getting into weekend work, which is difficult. But I don't travel nearly as much as I have in the past. But I'm about to go on the road for many, many weeks in a row now. See, there you go. I'm going to Vancouver, Calgary, Hawaii, San Francisco, and Brazil. Brazil? Yes. Now you have my attention. Not Hawaii? No, I mean, that's nice too, but the Brazil is exciting to me.

I'll take some bikini pics for you. Because if you can expense a trip to Brazil, then it's like, yeah, let's go. I'll take some bikini pics for you. Do it. Of me, not... No, that's what i was hoping you meant um by the way after that world junior championship i went on chfi my first ever appearance and i just want to say that uh they record you like 15 20 minutes before it's aired and then they edit it and then they play the edited version yeah yeah so people probably don't know this and i didn't know until i did it but

yeah you talk to mike cooper and aaron davis you talk i don't know we talked for like probably don't know this and I didn't know it till I did it. But yeah, you talk to Mike Cooper and Aaron Davis. You talk, I don't know. We talked for like, I don't know, three minutes maybe. And then you wait, they say,

okay, this will air at, let's say seven 40, which is like in 20 minutes. And then you listen. And what you hear back, not only was half of what I said, didn't make it to air,

but they changed the order. They changed the really. Yeah. So it's like, it's interesting. It's very interesting. What were they, what did they talk to you about?

What could you possibly have to say that would be interesting to the morning listeners of CHFI? Oh, I was somebody who was wanted. I talked about the atmosphere and how amazing it was to be at the game. And the main setup was that it was my first ever finals because I had never been to like a sporting event where they decided the champion. Oh, really? Have you?

I have. I've been to. But not Vanier Cups. They don't count. Okay. So I've been to the Vanier Cups. I've been to three National Lacrosse League Championship games. They don't count either. Which is phenomenal.

Have you been to anything real? Phenomenal. I'm trying to think. Hockey? Phenomenal. Hockey, no. When would I have ever... Oh, yeah, yeah.

Hockey World Cup of hockey. I went to the final. Oh, yeah. Okay, there you go. When Canada beat... I think it was Canada to the final. Oh, yeah. Okay, there you go. When Canada beat... I think it was Canada beat the US. That's exciting. Downtown.

That's probably it, I guess. I mean, there's not many opportunities to see championship games, regardless of what city. No, you basically got great cups and there's not a lot of options here. Even if the Leafs were good, like how many times are you going to go see them

at game seven or game four, five, six of winning the Stanley Cup? It's not going to happen. Although half a million Torontonians claim they were at the dome when Joe Carter hit the 3-point blast. I was at both victory parades. That's all I will complain. I got kicked in the balls for my Canada flag.

That's so funny! I was just going to say, when Joe Carter hit the home run, I was in my buddy Paul's basement. All of us were in the basement watching the game. Joe Carter hits the home run. I jump out of my seat cheering and land on my foot lands on my buddy's balls who are laying on the ground. Dude, no. Poor Kevin.

Yeah, this was after the 92 win when I got kicked in the balls by a drunk guy who took my flag. There was a cop sitting in a cruiser nearby and I just tapped in the window and I said, that guy just stole my flag. Could you just say something? He'll probably just hand it over. The cop looked at me and said, people are celebrating, man. That was the answer I got. People are celebrating, man.

He wasn't going to do shit. Do you remember? Of course you do. Who was the pitcher in 92? For the final eight? Mike Timlin. What do you mean, do I remember Do you remember? Of course you do. Who was the pitcher in 92 for the final? Mike Timlin. Yeah. What do you mean, do I remember? I remember they had Joe Carter at first. And I was thinking, Joe Carter catches it and jumps up.

And I was thinking, imagine Olerud was there. If Olerud was at first, like he was for most of the season, he would catch that ball and he would probably smile and just move his hand a couple of inches. Yeah, exactly. He'd be like, yay. Thank goodness, because Olerud's not going to jump around like that. No, not at all.

I remember he was a specimen because he had to wear the hard helmet. Yeah, he had the aneurysm or whatever. The entire, like every time, like out on the field

he had to wear it. Smoothest swing in the history of baseball. That's right. One of the guys to come closest to hitting 400 in the season as well.

363 he ended up at, which tells you how hard that is. It's fucking crazy. He had a good first half and then failed off. Okay, trailed off. Okay, so quickly,

on Facebook, you set me up with one of my sister-in-law's friends about thyroid cancer. I did? Yeah, so like... Oh, yeah. I forgot.

Sorry, you tell the story and then I'll defend myself. So quickly, Vanessa, who is my sister-in-law and had... Who's lovely, by the way, in case she's listening. She's all right.

She had thyroid cancer. And she posted something about how she hates when people call it the good cancer. There was an article in the Huffington Post about the six shitty things about having cancer or something like that. And the author who wrote the article said in the article on numerous occasions things that were offensive to thyroid cancer survivors and people who haven't survived from thyroid cancer basically saying it was good no one ever dies from it and it's a minor inconvenience because you have to have take a pill the original article then got pulled she had to repost with changes made to the article and a little sort of thing at the beginning basically saying with a mea culpa that then resulted in a second article in the huffington

post saying the six shitty things about having thyroid cancer okay so but but i did read the article but i did read what vanessa wrote which is something like how she hates when people call it the good cancer. Right. Okay. So then I actually saw this and I kind of chuckled to myself because I know about our inside thing or whatever. And I was not going to comment. So I see this and I'm smart enough.

I'm not going to touch this. Like I'm like, I'm not touching this. Like I'm being set up here or whatever. But then you go in there and leave a comment and you tag me in it like right to Toronto Mike or whatever. Toronto Mike thinks that it is the good cancer or something like that. Something like that.

So I now, now I'm like, oh shit, I got to go in there. So I go in and I try to clearly state my case, which I was very clear, which is this. It was not well done, but you did make your case. I wrote, I wouldn't wish it on anybody. You don't want any cancer. But if you have to have a cancer, this is good relative to many of the other cancers. And then this, I know this pisses off thyroid cancer, but I don't even understand why. If I had thyroid cancer, which is a very common cancer and a very high curable rate. You realize that there's multiple kinds of thyroid cancer.

Yeah, I'm not talking, I know Roger Ebert and stuff, and I know this can kill. I do know that the one that Vanessa had had like a 99% survival rate, and they do. Yeah, and I know you had a, I'm not saying it was fun for you, and it's shitty, you got to go through a lot of shit. It's awful. I wouldn't want you to get cancer.

I don't want anyone to get cancer, but if I had to choose my friend Mike Kick's cancer, okay, which had the 5% success rate, and the one you had, which had the whatever, 98.7 or whatever the hell it is, I would pick thyroid cancer i'm not going to get into it because it's boring and but it is a good cancer relative to other cancers that's not to say cancer is but people hear that we're saying cancer is good and we're the reason why i'm not saying anything you're the one who said it yeah i'm just telling you what i believe

the thing that i forgot about which made it even funnier was that oh the other person when i tagged you in it i for i thought it was just and this is funny coming from a guy i just oh yeah i actually work in social media like social media pays for my mortgage but i was like oh this will be funny i'm gonna tag mike because i know vanessa at least i know her i've met her a few times and we've communicated online and i'm like i'm gonna tag mike bust his balls what i didn't recognize was that that's on her wall which means that her friends can see it. And she has a lot of like cancer survivors. Correct.

Yeah. It's like, it's, you know, we tend to stick together because we mutual support. And this woman comes in and just starts being very aggressive in a friendly, in a friendly way. Like she wasn't saying you're a fucking asshole, like I would have said, but she went at you. She went at me. So then I said, look, hey, all jokes aside, he's a good guy. He gets it. And I'm just busting his balls.

And then she said, okay, that's cool. But what she said, which bugs me, she said, no cancer is a good cancer, which is not at all what I was saying. What I was saying was it's good relative to other cancers. I don't understand why people just can't wrap their head around the difference between something being good and good relative to something else. It was minus nine yesterday. OK, and I went for this bike ride and I thought it was really warm relative to the weekend. I know, but you're not to say it was warm yesterday. You're talking about a really sensitive issue.

It's like, you know, I'm glad that my grandmother's head was chopped off and not raped. But if she was raped and had her head chopped off, that would really suck. Correct. But I believe that to be true. But that is such a ridiculous comment to say to somebody whose grandmother was just killed. Well, that's a little extreme, that example. But anyway. But it's not, in a way.

It's a pretty extreme thing. I stick by my controversial statements. Quickly, we got to be quick here. Crave TV versus Show Me? Do you have any... Is this nonsense? Garbage. Terrible selection, right?

Garbage. I have no interest... And one of them, you have to be a subscriber to the service, correct? I think the Bell one... Yeah, Crave TV, you have to be with Bell. The Bell one, anyone can be... Nope. Or is it the Bell one, you have to be with Bell,

and the Rogers one, you have to be with Rogers? Here, let me tell you quickly. Bell announced they had the HD version of The Wire and it was $4 a month. And I'm about to watch The Wire with my son and I would rather stream it in HD for $4 a month. That's what I would be happy to do. Sure, because the DVDs are in SD, right?

Yes, correct. And yeah, we're staring at them right now. The fact is, I was thinking for $4 a month, I can stream HD Wire, not to mention the fact it's got Seinfeld and some other shit. I would do that. And then they told me I can't do that because I'm with Rogers. Really? True story.

So you have to be with the internet. You have to be with Bell. I don't know. Anyways, I just think that we have this big Netflix beast, although the Canadian Netflix pisses me off because it's missing so much gold, especially all the $30 to $30. Did you not see the article in The Star that the Netflix Canada has a

better, more recent lineup than the American Netflix? But it's not true. I don't know what they're saying except for the things I like. There's more new releases is what they're saying. Zero 30 for 30 documentaries. So just go on to the American one. Yeah, I know. I know. Yes, I know. Super easy. I'm aware of that. Stop complaining.

Go watch them. Go watch them. I'll watch them all right now. Just really quickly, let's say I'm watching the American Netflix on my laptop, okay? Yeah. I use Chromecast. I know you're an Apple TV guy. It's the same thing, but Google. I click Chromecast button, which means now it's on my TV.

But because, for some reason, this is what's happening now. The Chromecast detects that my IP address from the wireless network it's on is in Canada. It actually won't play US Netflix, even though my laptop's playing it because of an extension I have for Chrome. So I'll have US Netflix on my laptop, and when I send it to the TV,

it now gains this intelligence that my actual wire, I know you're going to say make your wireless network US. Yeah. That's a step I haven't gone to yet. So what I actually end up having to do is, I end up, yeah, what I've been doing is,

which is fine, I stick my HDMI cable in the laptop and now it cuts out that whole Chromecast element. There you go. So it doesn't know where I am. Anyway, I just quickly,

that came since we talked. Where there is a will, there is a way, my friend. Right. I'm reading my notes here. There's no comment whatsoever to that. No comment at all. Because I'm actually right

for one time. Yeah, there's a will, of course, where there's a will, there's a way. Since we talked episode 99, which was well before Christmas, we both jumped into some British detective series. That's how long I've been. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Before Christmas? Because I wrote this note. For fuck's sakes. I write these notes as they come up,. That's how long I've seen it. Yeah, yeah. Wow. I know. Before Christmas? Because I wrote this note. For fuck's sakes.

I write these notes as they come up, and that's how old this shit is. So the one I dove into first was Broadchurch. Loved it. Yeah, and then you watched it, and I just was going to say I loved it too. It was great. There's a second season.

It's already starting on BBC. No, I don't even think it's a BBC show, actually. It's the other British, what is it, ITV? I don't know the British networks, but they have an ITV or something. It's already starting on BBC. I don't even think it's a BBC show, actually. It's the other British... ITV? I don't know the British networks, but they have an ITV or something. It's not BBC. But they have already started season two.

So eventually... And apparently it's not like... It's a continuation of the story. It is not like sort of a reboot or like new characters, different location. It's the same Scottish guy. It's a continuation,

which I find very interesting. And that guy, you told me this, I think. The Scottish guy? The Scottish guy plays the same character on the American version of that show. Yeah, and he does an American accent. Which, by the way, I'm not going to watch the American version, mainly because it's the same story, and I liked it. I liked it in a British setting.

But I can't find it on Netflix. The other one I do. So after I watch Broadchurch, which is only, I think, eight episodes or. But I can't find it on Netflix. The other one I do. So after I watched Broadchurch, which is only, I think, eight episodes or something. I can't remember. I was feeling this British. I was digging the British detective thing. And I always loved Stringer Bell from The Wire. So I decided I would watch Luther.

And I watched, I think there's three seasons. And I quite enjoyed Luther. Yeah, was it good? I started it. Mrs. Elvis and I started it. And we got was it good? I started it. Mrs. Elvis and I started it and we got distracted and never continued on with it. But I would go back and watch it, yes. That chick you see at the beginning of season one

is the same chick who has an affair with McNulty, which was Dominic West, in The Affair, which is another good show my wife was watching. So what's interesting is she, in The Affair, which is another good show my wife was watching. So what's interesting is in Luther, she kind of seduces Stringer Bell and goes after him, and then in The Affair, she goes after McNulty.

I didn't realize that there was three seasons of Luther. I believe that, yeah, they're short, though, because they're like a British thing. And they're making some kind of a made-for-TV BBC movie thing with Luther, I believe. Interesting. Anyways, he's awesome, BBC movie thing with Luther, I believe. Really? Interesting. Anyways, he's awesome, that Idris Elba.

I'll have to watch it. He's going to be the new James Bond if you listen to some of the rumors. Yeah, and I heard that the guy from Community is going to be the new Spider-Man. Have you heard that one? No, I haven't heard that. I don't know. Those are all rumors. I don't think that one's true.

But there was a movement to get him to be the new Spider-Man. The two people that I heard were supposed to be rumored to be the new Spider-Man are people I've never heard of, which I think just means that I'm old. So they're apparently in shows that I've never even heard of. Oh, yeah, well, they'd be appealing to the teens and stuff. Well, it's not appealing to the teens. It's about he's supposed to be in fucking high school. So that's apparently where Sony wants to insert Spider-Man

back into the Avengers is him actually in high school, which is where most of Spider-Man takes place. Because he is the true leader of the Avengers, not Tony Stark. I don't know this shit. I really don't know. I don't know my comic book history. I was reading Asterix comics. Oh, my God. And Tintin.

For fuck's sake. Asterix even. I never read Asterix. Tintin. I was a Tintin guy for me. Asterix was my guy and I gobbled them up like candy. Yeah, Spider-Man

in my opinion is the true and I think most people's opinion is the true leader of the Avengers and it's a good day now that he is back. I know. You were very excited on that open mic I saw. And then Argy said you sounded like a 10-year-old boy. Which is fine. He sounds like an old curmudgeon. He does, doesn't he? We're on that open mic I saw. Very excited, yes. And then Argie said you sounded like a 10-year-old boy. Which is fine. He sounds like an old curmudgeon.

He does, doesn't he? So we're on opposite ends of the spectrum. He's very much a get-off-my-lawn kind of guy. For sure. So are you sometimes. Yeah, sometimes. The SNL had a 40th anniversary special. Did you watch any of this?

I haven't seen it. I want to see it. Facebook tells me that it annoys me when my wall, my news feed is filled with people telling me how much they love something, which is why. That's annoying. You follow too many people on Facebook. I didn't watch like Walking Dead for like the first four seasons because everyone would tell me that they're excited to watch it.

Oh, yeah. I have this with Game of Thrones. It's like, you know what? Fuck you. Fuck you, man. You know, it sucks. I'm going to screw you by not watching this wonderful thing. Correct.

So I'll probably watch the 40th on the 45th. I do watch Game of Thrones. I got into that late as well, but it's a good quality show. I never did get into Walking Dead or Game of Thrones. But I don't believe

in the live tweeting or like, I love this so much you have to watch it or you don't watch it so you're an asshole. Like, I never got that. Well,

no, that's silly. But the live tweeting of an event like this is kind of fine. This is a live, not from, cause this was a live. I really don't care what 99% of the people I I'm friends with on Facebook have to say. It's not for that.

Howard Stern. If you're watching it at the same time. Howard Stern, live tweeting, uh, private parts. Well, I get that.

Other actors live tweeting their show, I get that. That's insight that I can offer. But the fact that you're excited because there's tits, you know, like whatever. Here, a couple of quick things on that is that it's sort of like a sporting event, like the Super Bowl or something. I find the experience is enhanced if I'm watching a sporting event and I got like the laptops open and got like TweetDeckck loading that to see other people's thoughts on stuff in the game if i'm following the right people it enhances the experience the snl thing it's interesting to hear somebody you

know a lot of people came down and they were like i hate the californians this is awful or kanye what's he doing here it's awful like i don't mind hearing other people's opinions and then i might offer up my opinion which is is that I actually like the Californians. It's fair. But for me, most people don't add any value to the conversation. Do you like the Californians? Because it seems to be the polarizing skit. Why was it?

Don't tell me why it was polarizing. I don't know. No, it's just that skit. Are you familiar with the company? Yes. I find it funny. It's funny. And it's not.

It's just people just don't like that skit. Everything that I've heard that they did, i was happy to see that that was back except for the eddie murphy acceptance speech of no award but that's really what it was yeah i think it must have been his uh demands like he must have said i'll show up and stuff but i'm not doing any skit like he must have told them well i show up just because he's never been back i know but it added no value and if anything it he's he seems to be a guy that is really concerned about his legacy fine but it didn't do anything to enhance or maintain his legacy it just made him come across as an unfunny guy who didn't get the

whole reason to be there i watch i watch a lot of hockey do you know that although i've decided this is unrelated to what i'm going to say now. How many skinny pants do you own? I've decided, yeah. I've decided. Which I also find funny that you don't know what that is. What skinny pants are? Yeah.

It's what Strombo wears, right? But they're just tight. But you've said on multiple occasions in other interviews that you don't know what they are. But tell me though, what are they? They're pants that are skinny. That's all it is. So you need like skinny bird legs to pull this off or whatever? Because I got these like big biking legs. Are they going to work in skinny pants? You can wear skinny pants. Yes. Can you? It's more about the tapering. Oh, the is. So you need like skinny bird legs to pull this off or whatever? Because I got these like big biking legs.

Are they going to work in skinny pants? You can wear skinny pants. Yes. Can you? It's more about the tapering at the bottom. All right. Well, that's okay. They're tight.

It's like a Euro fit. I only own one pair of jeans, I think. What? Yeah, one pair of jeans. What are you, a maniac? I don't leave the house that much. I do, but I do it in like biking clothes. You're one pair of jeans.

Yeah. I don't think i maybe two pairs hermit you're like fucking bob mccown he just goes to work and then goes home right and i work from home so uh tell me though okay so here's my thoughts on the hockey i watch a lot of hockey and i never once thought uh that i wish i had like access to other angles and the ref cam and stuff like if you ever ever watched a game and said imagine i wish i could see different i could myself see different angles of that player see the ref cam and stuff has that ever ever struck you as something you would desire because all the interesting shit they show 100 times on the

telecast like if there is an interesting angle of something they're going to show it on the actual rogers hockey telecast like would you be quite would you desire an app where you could then yourself see different angles of plays? Yeah, I like it. It's interesting. I like the idea of being able to watch a game or at least minutes of a game from a goalie perspective or the referee's perspective. I think that's interesting. They'll sprinkle that into the telecast periodically and then you get your fill.

I never feel like I'm missing out. I just don't have this. I guess what I'm saying is all these ads for the Rogers app and there's a million of them. None of it seems desirable to me, because if you follow your local team, it's all over the... Do you want me to get off your lawn now or after the podcast is over? No, I'm asking if you think this is something hockey fans are missing, like the actual control to look at different angles and ref cams.

Well, I think a lot of people would have said that the, you know, people say that about graphics in football or graphics and sports in general, or the first downline where you, yeah, but it's, I'm saying visually see where the first downline now every single game, but I'm talking about beyond the actual telecast,

like all that shit's nice for the telecast. I'm saying like, right. Would you want to go to your tablet and load up the app and then make yourself see something that didn't make the telecast? Would you not want to do that? No, because all the interesting shit makes the telecast. So you never want to do that? No, because all the interesting shit makes the telecast.

So you never want to do that ever? I've never, no, I've never, I never said I didn't want to do it. I said that I've never had a moment where I wish I wished I could do it. Because you didn't have the opportunity to do it or because you just think that that is stupid? No, because I never, there's no, I don't see it as something that would enhance the game because all the interesting stuff makes the telecast. Get off my lawn. I don't think

it's get off my lawn. It's more of a... Because the Rogers app is not free. It costs money. I don't think it's... That's your real problem then. If it was free, it would be fine. Let it exist. I don't see the impetus to subscribe. Why would it be free?

If they're going to give you content that you can't get anywhere else, why would they give it to you for free? Right? And why are you relying on Rodgers for your fucking hockey broadcast? You're such a barbarian. Get this fucking American DNS address already and get NHL Center Ice, the American version, and you don't have to be tied to Rodgers.

For fuck's sakes. Well, there's a lot more than hockey, though. For me to subscribe to all the sports i want to watch would cost me more than the cable so it will not why i have a spreadsheet to tell you that it wouldn't i know it doesn't even come close but okay so okay because you're paying about twelve hundred dollars twelve to fifteen hundred dollars a year in cable depending on what package you have that's what it works out to it's about 100 120 bucks about 100 to 150 depending on how many channels you have. That's what it works out to. It's about $100 to $120. $100 to $150, depending on how many channels you have. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no...

You can get the entire NHL season, every single game, for, what is it, like $180, $200, $220 for the entire season. Okay. And can I watch... Everything. And I can watch my Raptors?

You can watch... I need an NBA package. You can watch Vancouver against Columbus even, which you probably couldn't watch on the Rogers Network. Well, maybe not because it's Vancouver, but Columbus versus Nashville. Nashville. Right. Who the fuck wants to watch that? Even if Nashville is good and you can go watch your old boyfriend there, Cody Franzen. Oh, yes. Oh, Cody Franzen. Oh yes. Oh,

we got to do a quick, but then you would have to buy, you would have to subscribe to the NBA package. You would then also have to subscribe to what other sports do you like to watch? That's pretty much it. Isn't it? Basketball, hockey and baseball.

No, I watched those three and then I, and I know you're going to tell me I can get some over the air digital thing to watch my, like I like some NFL playoffs and Super Bowl, and I like to watch, you know, some big tennis events. You know, there's a bunch of stuff.

I can't go down this rabbit hole again, but I will consider all this. You can actually do it. You don't have to, you know. And it might save me, like, 20 bucks a month, maybe. A lot of work. We'll see. Significant. All right. Thousands of dollars. Did you ever watch Sun TV? Yeah, I did.

When it first started, I was curious. Oh, did you? Oh, you were curious. Just like, you know, I would put it on for five minutes or whatever. And my biggest criticism was that I felt like the Sun studios were in your basement. No offense to your basement. The production values were really poor. Like their graphics were bad.

I felt like their lighting was just horrific. Who is the equivalent of Stokely when it comes to lighting? Because they needed to hire that guy. They need the Stokely of lighting on Sun TV. Yeah, because it was horrible. It was ridiculous. So just forget about content. I mean, just their production values never made me want to watch it again.

I never checked it out, so I can't speak to it, except I didn't check it out because I didn't think it was going to appeal to me. But I never did try it. It's too bad that you would think that way. Well, it's not that they have a conservative viewpoint, but from everything I read, it wasn't so much that they presented a conservative spin.

It was that there was some Islamophobia and some straight out bad journalism taking place over here. It's too bad that you wouldn't make the decision on your own, Mike. Well, it's a lot of television stations I don't check out. I am not the media writer for the Toronto Star here. There's a lot of stations I don't check out. I probably only watch like seven stations. And the Sun TV wasn't going to crack the list. But I don't watch CNN either.

Neither do I. If there's a huge thing going on, like the Boston Marathon, I might pop over for a bit to see how they're covering it just because it's a big event. That's the only time I kind of pop over. Did you know that something like 65% of Americans

still get their news from the nightly newscasts from the three major networks? Is Peter Jennings still doing it? I have no idea. No, he's dead. I don't know. He's dead. Is he? Lung cancer.

He was Canadian. Yep. Most of them are. Tom Brokaw's not. Most newscasters in the United States are Canadian. They should bring back Tom Brokaw because I hear they're looking for a new anchor at NBC. Just for six months. He's suspended for six months. Yeah yeah and then he'll be suspended more we'll see uh last thing i

wanted to ask you was about the maple leaf so uh i call it scorched earth but they apparently were starting the disbanding of these merry men and it was like you mentioned the franson trade so uh franson and santorelli for like a, like a prospect, a draft pick. And then of course, uh, another pick, probably an old guy who gets paid lots of money, who probably won't be here very long. Well, his contract is expiring. So it's a good trade. True.

And it will probably, if we get a seventh rounder for the guy, we'll toss him off. Like, sure. Yeah. Uh, so what do you, seventh rounders are really valuable. Yeah. Might as well. And I love how everybody's like, well, you know, Zetterberg was drafted in the you know 95th round i'm like name one other guy that was drafted in any sort of you know relevant era that has been drafted like that

person was it's a handful of guys well some great some great players have never been drafted like david clarkson for fuck's sakes man david clarkson great players and wayne gretzky apparently according to mr fucking hockey trivia over i did that to bust your balls uh of course he has a footnote to that but yes it's true he was massive people went they went how many rounds and they overlooked the great one they never had the opportunity to overlook him i'm just fucking with you for fuck's sakes people believe what you write on that fucking show. No, because... No, people don't believe that.

Well, no. I present it as a trivial fact. It is a fun barroom fact. It doesn't mean... It's not fun or funny. All right, Billy Crystal. Who was that? He was at the SNL thing.

Everybody was there. He was. I can't wait to watch it in five years. Some people were there who never got screen time. Like, I was thinking Sarah Silverman, for example, she was there. They couldn't give her a line. Like she's Howard Stern revealed on a show that he was invited to be in the audience. And he's only ever been on a segment of Weekend Update.

And I think anyone who got. Yeah, that's the famous story that he tells multiple times is that Lorne Michaels in the 90s asked Howard Stern to be the host of Saturday Night Live. And he went into Lorne Michaels' office and said, Fred, Jackie, and I are going to write the entire show. None of your writers are allowed to write anything. And Lorne Michaels said, thank you very much. And that was the end of the conversation. I'll bet, though.

Yeah, he's never been asked back. No, I'll bet. That's funny. He said, and Howard says, I was an asshole. I was, that was not the right thing to do. It was a dumb move. And I feel embarrassed about that. Interesting. Uh, any more leaf thoughts before we wind this sucker down? More of the same, I guess the only sort of shining light is that, uh, Brennan Shanahan actually wants to do something that Brian Burke should have done. Brian Burke, I guess, didn't

have the balls or the stomach to be able to have the scorched earth policy. He tried to do it half-assed, even though I believed in his way. I just believed in Brian Burke. But I don't necessarily believe in Shanahan as much as I believed in Burke, if that sounds weird. But I think that the ownership is behind Shanahan more than they're behind Brian Burke. And it just seemed, I'm convinced that Shanahan has the power to do whatever he wants. And so let's let Nones get rid of all the people that he signed that he shouldn't have signed, which is, it's so funny. Nones is coming on here like, you know, with his chest puffed out and saying that we're going to make all these changes. We're in this situation.

You've been here for the entire time. So you can't just say that you're fixing someone else's mistake. So yeah, let's let Nones do all the dirty work. Shanahan can fire him and then actually get a general manager who knows what the fuck to do. This is the part I find rather dysfunctional and strange is that like so Nones is

the GM. Yeah. And I think part of his job description is he's supposed to be responsible for personnel, like trades and signings and stuff. But we look at Shanahan's doing this, Shanahan's doing that. So, is Shanahan the GM and Nones is acting like an assistant GM? I would say that in reality, that Shanahan is the one who's calling all these shots i find it interesting though that you have your gm is really not making the decisions and he's a lame duck so yeah okay so why why i guess okay fine but shanahan doesn't have to be the bad guy i think is is what you know you get known as to fire the coach shanahan doesn't fire the coach right um you get

known as to bring in the new coach uh who you're going to just fire at the end of the season anyway so again shanahan is not the bad guy shanahan has he he's in the position where he can involve himself but doesn't have to be the one who actually does the dirty work which is a great position to be in but eventually of course the shit flows uphill and we'll get to him if it doesn't work out but right right now, all the onus is on Dave Nones. Well done. Yeah! Fucking A!

I'm never coming back on the podcast again. That's where you needed the Tim and Sid sound effect. Oh, shit. I don't even know where it is anymore. That's what she said. Yeah! Yeah! Fucking A.

I love that so much. A lot of people hate that sound. Really? Like it's gimmicky. I fucking love it. When they do it, it's so great. I love Tim and Sid so much. I'm going to get them on this podcast.

I just love them so much. Would you let me do this separately? What if I just can get a Tim and not a Sid or a Sid and not a Tim? All I ask is I don't ask to be here with guests. Just Greg Brady. Well, I brought him in. It'd be kind of weird if I said, hey, can you do a podcast? And then I'm not there.

And you failed to deliver the Friedman. I would love to be here, not even on the air, just here with Tim and Sid. I'd be laughing in the background so people know I'm here but I'll put you in the closet I just find they're so fucking funny

you know that's I kind of let you off easy but you did promise me Friedman for months I did for a long time I know I just never followed up

and I didn't even touch it because I figured Elvis is going to bring in Friedman like he brought in Greg Brady and eventually I had to like cut you out to make it happen

you did smart move did you never ask I told you. What's the true story though? The true story is that I didn't want to tweet him and ask him to come on a podcast when I couldn't commit to actually be on the podcast. So I was trying to figure out when the right time was for me to say, yes, I can do this.

Oh, yes. And I never was able to do that. So I didn't think it was fair to you or to him, when in reality that turned out to not being fair to you by me saying that I would bring him in, and then you had to do it yourself. Who should be the next hockey guy? Because I realized my Rogers hockey, I've had Merrick, I've had Strombo,

I've had Cox, and I've had Cox. And I've had... Too easy. Too easy, not smart. And I've had Friedman. Who's the next guy? And who do you like more do you like Healy or Kipper

see I've never had a professional athlete on this show what do you think about that do you get a boner when that happens no do you think you would

have a boner I don't know I think I don't know if they'd be that interested in the professional did you have a boner

when Strombo was here because he's your boyfriend as a semi like a semi I for me I would love to interview Kipper and ask him about the evolution of his I would love to interview Kipper

and ask him about the evolution of his broadcasting because I can get Kipper I think I've met him he to me has done a 180

not a 360 because I would bring him right back to where he once was he started shit and now he's good amazing I really I really like him

I know he gets a lot of flack for changing his opinions every once in a while but I think he does a really good job I like Jeff O'Neill now yeah you mentioned that I know, I know he gets a lot of flack for changing his opinions every once in a while, but you know, I like, he does a really good job. I like Jeff O'Neill now. Yeah. You mentioned that.

I know. Cause I'm surprised. I don't know why I'm surprised. I thought he was, cause I didn't really like him as a hockey guy, like a hockey player. And I didn't like him as a leaf. And then I guess I was like thinking now what's this stupid ex hockey guy

got to say. And then, you know, you watch your TSN broadcast, which by the way are way better than these Rogers hockey broadcasts, but that's another episode. And then, you know, you watch your TSN broadcasts, which, by the way, are way better than these Rodgers hockey broadcasts, but that's another episode. And Jeff O'Neill... You really got a big hard-on

for Rodgers. No, I don't. Yeah, you do. No, I don't. I know. I was being sarcastic. Oh, sorry. I thought because I don't.

I actually like the TSN hockey guys better. Jeff O'Neill is amazing. Do you know who's polarizing as well? P.J. Stock. It seems as though everybody hates him.

No, Glenn Healy's more polar healy's polarizing polarizing in the way that everyone hates okay healy's a guy that people seem to hate you want to you want to see something that'll blow your mind yeah i'm ready go google pj stock on the french language cbc he does the exact same job in french and it fucked me up the first time I saw it. I will. Do it. By the way, if you'd like to be a guest on Toronto Mic'd, send me a confidential email to mike at torontomic.com. Confidential. I won't copy, paste, and tweet it. And dick pics.

No dick pics. What was the email address again? Mike at torontomic.com. Mike at torontomic.com. Dick pics to that address. So if you want to be on, just drop me that note and then we'll, we'll chat confidentially and discreetly. No dick pics,

please. I can't wait to sit here. No dick pics, please. And that, that Elvis brings us to the end of our 111th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike And Elvis at Oshawa Elvis. You can send me your dick pics too.

Yeah, send him your dick pics. Oshawa Elvis. See you all next week. Bye.