Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - When Dean Blundell Attacks: Toronto Mike'd #412.5

Episode Date: December 19, 2018

Mike responds to the podcast Dean Blundell recorded about him.

Welcome to a unnumbered episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. This one's completely different because this episode does not exist. There's no tweet to support this episode. There is no guest in the studio, so there's no photo of me and the guest in the usual spot. There's no entry on

torontomic.com where people can play the episodes straight from the site. This unnumbered episode only exists in the feed for Toronto Mic'd. So if you're subscribed to Toronto Mic'd, you'll find this episode and I don't know what I'll call it. I'm leaning towards calling it When Dean Blundell Attacks. Yeah, I think I might go with that one. It's growing on me.

Yeah, I think I might go with that one. It's growing on me. So what is this? Well, recently, Dean Blundell. Now, if you know Toronto Radio, you know the name Dean Blundell. He took over for Humble and Fred on 102.1. I don't get a guess. This is like early 2001. That's from my memory, though.

So, you know, a reasonable facsimile of a copy of a copy so i think early 2001 humble and fred leave uh 102.1 for a brother station as they called it mojo radio 640 and they became the new morning show on 640. Dean Blundell was recruited, I suppose, from Windsor, where he was doing like a rock jock in Windsor, and he became the new morning guy. Jason Barr and Todd Shapiro, who were part of the Humble and Fred show, they stayed behind.

I feel like at the beginning, maybe Sandra Plagakis was also staying behind, and before she moved on I believe she's in Ottawa now but Dean Blundell was on 102.1 for a long time he left there was great controversy when he left you might remember uh he was suspended because of comments that were made when uh when blind Derek Welsman was on that jury and they made jokes and references to the jury that caused a mistrial there was great controversy here uh some of the remarks were deemed homophobic but i believe what got him in

the end was simply uh like a straw that broke the camel's back and chorus uh canceled the dean blendel show he eventually did resurface on 590, where he was the morning show host before he was let go from that gig. And as recently as today, I heard somebody pointed me to a tweet and an entry by Dean Blundell that he's going to be guest hosting on 1010, News Talk 1010, which is a Bell Media company. And he has a huge announcement to make, he says, Friday or Monday. I don't know which one, but who knows what that announcement will be. Personally, as long as he's not going to announce that he's taking over for Matt Galloway on CBC Radio 1's Metro Morning, whatever he announces will have little effect on my day-to-day, so we'll see what that is. But Dean Blundell did podcasts, so after the 590 gig and before now,

he discovered podcasting. So even though in the past he would shit all over podcasting, especially when Humble and Fred were doing it, It turns out he was into it because he recorded a number of podcasts. Recently, he recorded a podcast in which I came up. So I was pointed to this episode and was told, you need to listen to this. So, of course, I did. And I heard, well, I'm fine with him going at me, but the lies were too tough to chew. Like, I don't mind fair game and all,

but if you want to go at things I did say or things I did or whatever. But this was completely unfair, so I was left with, like, what do I do now? Blundell put, he recorded this podcast for public consumption. He released it into the public and he wrote about it on DeanBlundell.com because he wanted people to listen to his podcast. So he's gone to great efforts to put this in the public domain.

I mean, he said it on the recording, so he knew what he was doing. And as he says in this episode, he was clean and sober for months, so he can't blame substances. He's of sound mind and body. And he puts this out there. And now what? People hear this, and of course, oh, Dean, why would Dean lie? This must be true. So I feel like I need an opportunity simply to rebut the things he said. So what I'm going to

do in this episode, again, this episode that is unnumbered because it may disappear at any moment and it's for subscribers only. I could pull it. I might not even post it. That's how unsure I am about this one. But let's do this. Let's listen to dean on this episode when he goes at me and then i'll pause and chime in periodically so jerry called me today and said uh melon adam said a bunch of nice stuff had a nice interview and then uh he said uh he asked how todd was doing who i haven't talked to in years right why would anyone can think that you would be a good source of information you know it's interesting because a lot of people ask me uh about todd and it kind of full circle sort of came around this morning because a guy that that podcasted with him for a long time this

guy mike boone you know who mike boone is no toronto mike you know who he is not really no uh he has i don't want to say i don't want to say chase me down, but this guy has been relentless for like 20 years, critiquing pretty much everything I do. That seemed to stop. Like for what? Oh, when I was at the edge, the show sucks, he's a loser, he's this, he's that. Yeah, but lots of people said that, but why does this?

I'm going to pause it there, just because already I need to come in here and say this whole notion that for 20 years I've been hounding Blundell and telling him his show sucks, he's such a loser. I've never in my life, at least not on the blog or podcast, have I called him a loser. I've never said he sucks. a loser. I've never said he sucks. I'm trying to figure out the root of this whole idea. And I think it comes down to the fact that when asked about Dean Blundell, I always answered with the truth. And in fact, I pretty much almost always use this exact term. But I would say he's not my cup of tea, because he wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't like what I heard. So I didn't listen. But I sure didn't write entries about how much he sucks

and what a loser he is. I've never done that. Now, I did one time in, I think, 2003 or something, George Stravolopoulos. Strombo was filling in for the Dean Blundell show because they went on vacation or something. And I had a commute back then, and I tuned in to hear how Strombo sounded on the morning show.

And Strombo sounded fantastic. He was just what I was looking for in a morning show. I liked the music. I liked what he would say about the music. It just felt great to hear this. And I wrote an entry on TorontoMic.com. It's still there, in which I kind of compared it to Lisa's Substitute. And I said that, you know, Strombo was Dean's Substitute and really like,

was really good. And I wasn't even bashing Dean because I always just say Dean Blundell's not my cup of tea. His show is not my cup of tea. But the Strombo fill-in was great. And that's kind of the closest I've ever come, as far as I know. And you can tell me, I've never deleted a Blundell entry. I've never called him a loser or said he sucks or gone at him at all the last 20 years. I hardly write about him because I don't listen to him. And I only just write news updates like, okay, Blundell's a new guy at the fan. They've canceled the Dean Blundell show. So that's a fact. This idea, I've hounded him the last 20 years.

I've never met Dean. I've never talked to him on the phone. I have emailed him three times in the past six years since I started this podcast. But we'll get to that in a minute. Let's let Dean pick it up and I'll come back. And I know. What does, no, but what does he do? I don't know.

I think he does a podcast. He's got a website where he talks about like media people and gets free stuff. Oh, he's a podcaster. Yeah, he's a podcaster. Got it. And I think does pretty well. Yeah.

Clearly. You just called him Toronto Mike. Well, that's what he goes by. I know several Mikes in Toronto, so I didn't know what you were talking about. No, no. Oh, you're thinking of Keswick Mike. Or maybe Hamilton Mike. So Sutton Mike.

Are you thinking about Hamilton Mike? Anyway, he's been. I know Mikes in Hamilton that hate you. He's been probably. He has had like Humble and Fred on like 100 times, and he's had Todd on 100 times. Okay, I'm coming in here because I'm laughing, because, okay, Humble and Fred have been on a lot.

I think they've been on probably five times, maybe six times, but I guess that's a lot, but I have done 412 episodes. So, you know, percentage-wise, it's not that much. They're not on that much. But here's the kicker. He's had Todd Shapiro on 100 times, okay? I've done 412 episodes of Toronto Mic'd. Todd Shapiro has been on exactly, precisely one of them. One time, episode 66 or something like that, Todd came over. It wasn't even a great experience.

He made me make him breakfast and coffee. He made me sort of like, he kind of was demanding all this stuff. It wasn't a great experience. Todd's never been back. I don't know how Dean Blundell came to this false conclusion that my podcast, I've had Todd Shapiro on hundreds of times. I don't know how one becomes hundreds. I know hyperbole is a big thing. So maybe if Todd was on 15 times, Dean might stretch that to hundreds of times,

but one doesn't stretch to hundreds of times, but here's more Dean. All the questions are dean centric they're all about me and how much of a bully i am and how terrible i and all this other stuff so he's asked me to be on his podcast like a hundred times and i said you know okay again i don't know if dean's just got this tick where everything is a hundred times like if this is just some default a hundred times i've asked him three times, and this is the truth. I don't delete a Gmail, so I can show you. When I started the podcast, I wrote him an email and invited him on. At some point, a couple of years later, I think he wrote back something like, thanks,

but no thanks. And then a couple of years later, I wrote him again to say something to the effect of just checking in if now is a better time and if you want to come on. The reason I felt, at that time, the reason I felt better time and if you want to come on. The reason I felt at that time, the reason I felt Dean should have a fair chance to come on is because I do have a lot of 102.1 personalities on my show because that's the station I listened to throughout the 90s. So I have, by definition, I suppose,

I've had many people on the show who have worked with Dean Blundell. If I have somebody like a Todd Shapiro or a Jason Barr or a blind Derek Welsman or Josie Dye, I'm just running off these names off the top of my head, Adam, Adam Ricard, of course, Danny Stover. If I have somebody like that on the show, I will ask about Dean Blundell. But I do that with every episode. I ask about these

big personalities. I don't know if people have noticed, but when I have a 590 person on the show, I will typically ask about Bob McCowan. Okay. Same kind of deal. If I have a Q107 person on the show or somebody who worked cross paths with, uh, Derringer, I will ask about Don John, Don Derringer John Derringer. I ask about the big personalities in Toronto Radio if you worked with them. I always do. So, yes, of course, when I have Blind Eric on, I'm going to ask about Dean Blundell and Danny

Stover, I'm going to ask about that, and even Humble and Fred at some point in their several visits, I will have asked about Dean Blundell. I don't, the whole episode of Shapiro is not about Blundell, but you can't have a one-on-one deep dive with Shapiro and not ask about his relationship with Blundell because of course him and Barr were both let go before the show was canceled. Billy, that's another one. Billy from Mad Dog and Billy. She came on this show and

of course I asked her about working with Blundell because I had heard the things Blundell said about her when she was part of Mad Dog and Billy. And they were pretty horrific things. So I think what Blundell's getting at with that comment about that I'd like to have, I have these guests on hundreds of times so I can ask them hundreds of questions about bullying Dean Blundell. I've now had many, many guests on the show by this point. I've had many people come on and tell pretty bad stories about working with Blundell. This is not a positive experience for many of them. And they tell stories that are not kind to Blundell. And I always feel like it's only fair that Blundell has a chance to come on and defend himself and clarify things. It's only fair.

So I did ask Blundell a second time if he wanted to come on the show. And again, he said no. And then I let it go until this is only pretty recently, I think in the summer, Blundell wrote some blog entry about how he had quit drinking, he had cleaned up, and he was no longer consuming alcohol. And he was the new dean. This is just prior to this, obviously, it all ties in in a minute. It's just prior to this podcast that we're listening to from Blundell. So Blundell had cleaned up and was sober and was new and improved. And I wrote him a nice note,

which he's going to talk about soon. So maybe I'll let him talk about it. I'm not interested, but thank you. Very nice. And so he asked me again this week because we did our first podcast, talked about some important things in my life. And he said, hey, I'd love to have you on my podcast.

And then he says, please say yes. Okay, coming in to say I've never, I have this email. I don't delete any emails that I send. And I did not say, please say yes. That is fiction. So I, because I like getting back to people, I waited a week because I forgot.

And then on my way down, I thought, oh, you know what? Maybe I'll kill two birds with one stone. We can invite this guy on. He can do a podcast with us here, and I'll give him the audio to play on his site. And he said, I don't know. I don't think so. Well, I'll read you what he said.

He said he doesn't want to, but he would prefer if I came down to his studio in wherever he lives. And I said, not going to happen. Right. Because I don't. And it's not you mean because you know you just won't put that amount of effort. That's too much effort for free. Right. So someone wants me to make that much of an effort so that they can get good content.

I'm not doing anything for free. You could come off here as playing it cool. Really, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Listen, I got a 25 minute rule. If I can't get to something within 25 minutes in my car, I just won't do it

unless someone gives me money. If you could come to the place where I am going to be and doing that, I will do it with you. Yeah. Alright, I'm going to be and doing that, I will do it with you. All right. I'm going to pause it there. So this email I wrote, and man, do I regret writing this email. Because firstly, when I write an email to somebody, so my Gmail address to his, I actually am stupid.

Am I stupid? I guess I'm stupid that I think it's a private correspondence. So I don't think that he's going to post it somewhere public or read it in public. Now, he hasn't read it so far. He's been paraphrasing it. But I can tell you what I wrote, which was I said something to the effect of, I heard that you cleaned up and that you're new and improved. And I'm pleased to hear it.

And then I think I invited him back on the show. And then I signed it off. As I often sign my emails, I signed a hope you say yes, Mike. And that was it. And then as he's explaining now, he invited me to come on his show, and I told him the truth,

which is that's not how Toronto Mike works. He's got to come in. I do these things in my studio, and we can look each other in the eye and have a one-on-one honest deep dive, some real talk, as I call it. And I didn't care to come on his show so he could kind of edit it and carve it up and take it out of context and and I can't curve it up and make you look stupid because the way it plays out is exactly as it happened in the room. And, of course, I'm not out to get anybody anyways, so that's never a concern. But here's more Dean.

If not. And I thought what it was was an olive branch to this guy because he's been ruthless with me for years. Like a lot of bloggers are where they're, oh, this guy sucks, that guy sucks. It's like this. It sounds like he doesn't like your show. And there was a lot of people that didn't like your show. Not many.

But anyway, so he's been chasing me. There was a lot more people not listening to you than there were listening to you. And we agree to disagree. So this guy's chasing me down and he any any and he's asked me a hundred times to be on his podcast and i and i keep saying no so i i offer him this opportunity to listen you can come on our podcast ask your questions our podcast i'll get it is it's our podcast dan do you get that 33 percent matt dude i get 33

percent of the same 33 percent you get i guess that's true we're dividing nothing oh yeah zero plus zero zero divide zero by zero all you want you'll still get the zero i was asking myself that question because we were texting back and forth today okay so everybody in and as i'm coming in i'm like in for what like what the fuck are we doing in for free oh i, I should tell you, the rather reasonable-sounding person that's co-hosting with Dean Blundell is a gentleman named Zeke Myers.

And I believe he owns or runs the Rebel nightclub in the Portlands there. And throughout, actually, I found him to be fairly reasonable. Like, you know, he kind of, he clearly doesn't know who I am or anything about my show, which is a-okay, because I would also say more people don't know who Toronto Mike is or about Toronto Mike than know, that is for sure. But he seems kind of balanced and fair throughout, even though he's obviously a good friend of

Dean and co-hosting Dean's podcast. But it literally is one of the only things I do for fun. Yeah. And I don't even know why. You do other things for fun. But I don't even know, but I make time for this and I don't really even know why. Because we're friends and it's a good time.

Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. It's just fun. It's the only way I'll do stuff. And it was under 25 minutes for me to get here. But it's out of character fun for me. I literally don't do stuff like that. Like anything performance-wise or public.

I'm really proud of you and your stance here. But can I finish my story? So this guy asked me to be on his podcast. Hi, Lisa. I've said no thanks. Hi, Lisa. How are you? And so anyway, to make a long story short i say to him listen you can come on my podcast you can put the audio on your thing if you like yeah and uh

so this guy who's been chasing me around you've been saying all kinds of shit well it's not even worth it uh it's it's too much work zeke i'm not getting paid to do that but it's factual you'll be reading do you want me to read something factual? Well, it's factual rather than... Because I don't want you to end up slamming somebody. I'm not slamming the guy. Okay. This is from Mike.

I heard the new episode. Very good. How about... How about... God damn it. How about dropping... All these things come up when it says, do you want the Wi-Fi?

Do you like the Phoenix Wi-Fi? How's the Wi-Fi? How about dropping by for... How about dropping by for an episode of toronto miked to chat about the new you etc hope you say yes i said mike we are podcasting at noon today you can join us by phone if you like ask your questions and we will share the audio with your site he says this is pleasant. Very kind. Very kind. A lot of things have been called. Very kind is not one of them.

So I enjoyed those two words. Yeah, coming, chiming in to talk about how ruthless I am. He called me ruthless. And wow, if I'm ruthless,

I never, never personally attacked the guy. I said, he's not my cup of tea. I doubt that's ruthless. There's a lot of broadcasters in this city he's not my cup of tea. I doubt that's ruthless. There's a lot of broadcasters in this city that aren't my cup of tea. But in this correspondence, I'm glad Zeke asked him to read it because the paraphrasing by Dean is, oh my God, is it just not hyperbolic,

but just full of lies, just to make me seem like some kind of an asshole but at least now that he's reading it like yes my response to the uh offer to have me come on his podcast instead of him him coming on mine authentically was very kind like that's a very kind gesture uh and let's see what else i say but i'm recording an episode at noon and i really prefer to have the guests over in person please let me know if you change your mind. P.S., do you think you can unblock me on Twitter? Yeah, I'm sorry. For me to kind of, whatever, part of my role at Toronto Mike is, yeah, I do kind of report on where people are,

radio personalities are ending up and stuff. And I don't know, if something, um, the morning show on Virgin, I'll, I'll do a tweet or an entry or something, uh, uh, about that. And that's what I do. And, and, uh, the fact that when people like to subtweet Dean a lot, this would happen. They're subtweeting Dean and they'll say something like, Oh, here's big news from Dean, but I can't read the damn tweet because Dean has blocked me forever. So yes, I did throw in a PS. Again, I think I'm having a private correspondence here. I threw in a PS at the end of that email

if he could unblock me on Twitter because it's a pain in the ass when you have these subtweets and you can't read them. And I think others who are blocked by people like that will empathize. Woo! Anyway. you can't read them. And I think others who are blocked by people like that will empathize. Anyway, so I say, well, we can move it to 1115 and move you up. That's the best I can do.

So then he takes the hard pass. He goes, I appreciate it, but I'm going to pass. Good luck. I root for all podcasters. A rising tide lifts all boats. I don't even know what that means. I think that's clear. And the fact he doesn't know what that means is, you know, take that for what it's worth.

But true, true. Even if you're not my cup of tea, I actually would like you to be podcasting and have a successful podcast. This is true because it really, especially a podcasting, a rising tide does float all boats. The more people who learn what a podcast is and how easy it is to subscribe to the syndicated content, that's another person who could potentially subscribe to your podcast. Like they've now put their toes in the ocean and then they're ready to dive in. So I sincerely believe that line is true. I believe it to be true that if, uh, if Dean Blundell has success with podcasting,

it's good for all podcasters. Positive. Sure. Uh, I said, anyway, should you be able to do our cast all range of time to maybe come to you near in the future?

Good luck. And that's what I said, which I won't cause it's too far, but that was me saying, uh, yeah, I'll do yours. If you do mine with no intention of doing his. good luck. And that's what I said, which I won't because it's too far. But that was me saying, yeah, I'll do yours if you do mine with no intention of doing his. And I just thought I should be rigorously honest there.

That's all. And I knew that, which is why I took a hard pass because when I invite someone on and they say, oh, you can come on mine. I just didn't trust that he would actually come on mine

and I didn't want to go in his arena when I don't trust him at all as far as I can throw him. So yeah, I took the hard pass. I'm glad I took the hard pass. And that should have been it, to be honest. That was the last time I corresponded with Dean Blundell. And that really should have been it. I did not foresee this recording. I didn't see it coming, which is why I'm now talking about Dean, because he's kind of attacked me, and all I'm going to do in this little subscriber only episode is rebut.

I never had an intention of doing this podcast. Because what happens is this. A lot of people will take the things that we say. You have a dizzying intellect. I'm sober. This started with jerry d right are you going yeah he called me today now he's gonna come do a podcast with us okay um my kid prank called him that's why it was a funny story oh really yeah yeah yeah did he because

we called me before did he but not prank called me just dial dialed my number and i heard your ex-wife disciplining your child yeah probably over this whole conversation seriously your ex-wife picked up the phone and she went zeke have you been listening the whole time when was this oh years years and years ago he just hit my number on your phone right did she sound annoying no she laughed at the end of it she's like oh i'm so sorry he must have been playing with the phone or something. Yeah, and if you weren't on the phone, she wouldn't have said that. You would have heard screams of pain.

Oh, come on. I'm just joking. Come now, children of the beast. Be strong and shout at the devil. Motley Crue. Referencing Motley Crue today. Very good. I'm even wearing the t-shirt.

Anyway, so that was my point, is that i'm trying to get jerry on this i'm not even trying he just said hey i'll come and do a podcast with you next week well that's what i mean but but then this guy like it's funny how this this guy thinks that i'm going to drive like an hour to sit down with him and have him grill me when he's treated me like shit apparently and i just found this out a couple of years ago, for like 20 years. I don't know. Dean might want to check his sources that he just found out that for 20 years

I've been treating him like shit because it's mind-boggling how false that is. So that's the role of a critic, I guess. You start this because... He's not a critic. He's a guy that rides his bike and podcasts. He's a bike-riding podcaster. We're guys who his bike and podcasts. He's a bike riding podcaster. We're guys who drive cars and podcasts.

We do it because it's fun. It's cute. And he is enjoying doing a podcast on things. And he has, obviously with Toronto Mike being his handle, he is trying to, in his podcast, be Toronto-centric and the things that are popular in the city of toronto probably also things that are controversial he uses it to get free stuff in the city of toronto no he uses it to get free stuff all right coming in again uh because dean has said this now

a few times that i'm used toronto mike.com to get free stuff. Wow, is that a lot? By the way, quick, quick, before I forget, I said Zeke Myers was running The Rebel. It's actually The Phoenix, The Phoenix Concert Theatre. Zach Myers is the partner in that enterprise and the book are there. So I just want to correct that mistake I made. But the whole idea that TorontoMike.com exists to get free stuff, a couple of

things. One is, I don't get much free, honestly, I don't get much free stuff. Like, there's not much free stuff going on. I guess I borrow a car once in a while, although now GM is closing up, who knows what that's going on, but from Ford or whatever, I'm trying to think of what other free stuff I've had in the last couple years, and not much maybe the odd wolf pack match think about the amount of time I've put into TorontoMike.com since you know the late 90s if I added it up that is a lot of effort to get free

wolf pack tickets that's all I'm saying there extraordinarily controversial in the city of Toronto no I wasn't the other people around you will do his podcast so of course it's pro them and anti you yeah so I don't I don't blame him on any of that stuff it's just dude all he all literally all he did is have on people like Howard and Fred who uh would just shit on me, and then Todd, who would shit on me,

but only passively shit on me and say the story's coming when there's no story. Okay, I don't think Dean knows what literally means because he just said he, literally what I do on this podcast is I have literally all I do in 412 episodes for over six years. Literally all I do is I have Humble and Fred and Todd Shapiro on my show to shit on him. This isn't Toronto Mike apparently. This is the Dean Blundell sucks podcast. And heck, maybe that would be a more

successful podcast. Who knows? But if we added up the minutes spent talking about Dean Blundell out of the whole universe of Toronto Mic'd, that's a remarkably small percentage. But yes, again, when Todd came on the one time, and when Jason Barr came on the one time, and Billie Holiday came on the one time, and Josie Dye came on the one time, and Humble and Fred came on several times, and Blind Derek came on the one time, and Josie Dye came on the one time,

and Humble and Fred came on several times, and Blind Derek came on once, and Danny Stover came on twice. And in those episodes, yes, we do at some point talk about Dean Blundell. Or Danny, our old producer. Two shit. It's just, and it was this long line.

At this stage of my life, we go back to that Mike Boone podcast we had earlier. I don't trust the guy, right? So I'm only going to do stuff with people I trust. That was Toronto Mike you were talking about. Yeah, where someone spends lots of time defaming you and slandering you, and you look the other way. It's the same thing with Howard and Fred. Spends a lot of time doing what you and slandering you and you look the other way. It's the same thing with Howard and Fred.

Spends a lot of time doing what you used to do. No, because it's the pussy's way to do it, right? Like if you're going to call someone something, at least stand there to their face and call them something. You did it on the podcast. Time out. If you're going to record a podcast for public consumption in your sober state that you will then share on deanblendell.com and release to the masses, hoping as many people as possible listen to it. All I ask is that before you make these grandiose, bold statements of fact, you spend even 30 seconds

researching whether you're right or not. It wouldn't take long to realize, oh, that podcast doesn't actually exist to relentlessly go at me. I mean, what kind of narcissist are we dealing with here? The most minimal, or even talk to somebody who actually listens to Toronto Mike. What is Toronto Mike about? Is this a big gotcha for Dean Blundell? What is it? It would take so little time to realize that's all nonsense. And this is not a relentless pursuit of him. And the blog, tronamike.com, which has probably 15,000 different entries that I've written over the last 15 plus years, probably talks about Blundell, and 10 of them maybe. And maybe one time the Dean's substitute, no, yeah, the one about Strombo filling in.

That's probably the harshest I got in terms of criticizing his work. And again, all I say is that he's not my cup of tea. The radio. Yeah, because no one could get me. Yeah. I was going to say, I don't remember you. And I'll still do it. And the Biebs.

No, no, no. Hanging out and you delivering those blows face to say, I don't remember you and the Biebs hanging out and you delivering those blows face to face. I know. See, there's a lot there that I wouldn't go down that road anymore. You just said I wouldn't. There is so much meat on that bone of that comment. I would never, ever, ever take it there.

Right. But you want to. Oh, so bad. Yeah, he sounds like a changed man. Apparently, it was all the alcohol. I'm fighting this. I'm being evil. I'm just prodding you.

I'm fighting. Dance, monkey. Once again, I could do a lot with that, too. So my point was is that I definitely have been. Listen, I'm not a happy, feely, oh, everybody let's be friends guy. Don't get me wrong. I still have boundaries and barriers up, like the stuff with Fred and Howard. It's crazy I forgot their names because they don't particularly matter to me.

But these guys verbally chased me down and took sound bites, I guess. You were the one that informed me of it a couple of years ago. And then they asked me to be on their podcast. Well, fuck no. I'm not doing that. It doesn't mean you have to be a doormat if you're a nice person, right? I don't think you proclaim yourself a nice person. I don't think you know if you're a nice person.

No, no, no. What did you just say? This incredibly warm, kind, nice person. That's what my wife said. Yeah, but you know me to be that too. I am. And I need to square that more with this. So these boundaries that I have are, you know, I watched when.

I don't want you walking around saying, Zeke Myers describes me as an incredibly warm, nice person. I do not want to be quoted as that. Do you honest to God think I would ever say that in public? Yeah. So guys like. I just want to set the record. Guys like that in public. Yeah. So guys like... I just want to set the record straight. Guys like that, guys like Howard and...

Sorry, what's his name? Mike. And then guys like Todd. And I've watched guys like these... I have an unfailing desire to never compromise myself. Unfailing. It will never... That is one thing that will never fail me.

The word unfailing is very strong. Big time. Never compromise myself is ambiguous. No, it's not. I will never compromise what I know and believe to be the right thing. And the right thing is if someone keeps coming after me, I'm not going to help them. I'm not going to give them that time. A guy like, you know know and i've had these conversations

with various maybe possible employers in the future would you work with todd again absolutely not absolutely not because there was a rubicon that was crossed and and it was you know threats and all this yeah it's a it's a river it's a rubicon and it ran right through it no that's a rob redford movie it's's a River Runs Through. A boring movie. Brad Pitt sat there forever, wouldn't eat his dinner. It was a great movie. Anyway, so I won't associate with those guys.

It doesn't mean I have to hate them because I don't hate them. And it also doesn't mean I have to wish them all the success in the world either. But I'm not like, I watched guys like, you know, Howard and Fred. Fred would come in and say awful stuff about howard uh todd would say awful stuff about howard and no no listen no no listen and howard and fred and then and then they would say stuff about other people and and all right this part is not about me but uh it does kind of speak to the character of the man speaking which is that it seems like his goal with this rant is to like cause chaos i would say he's trying to put some something

between you know my again full disclosure humble and fred were at my wedding. I consider them both personal friends. I've helped them with their podcast, which has been well-documented, and I'm actually going to see them tomorrow morning. And I root for their success, of course. I feel like I'm a part of that show. And they have been on several times, so I consider them personal friends. But that part there, this whole idea of, you know, Fred talks shit about Howard

to me privately behind Howard's back. Dean's putting this on a podcast right now. Like, he wants that out there. This whole, you know, Todd, he's trying to, I guess, divide and conquer?

Is that the term I'm looking for? He's trying to polarize. All he's trying to do is cause chaos. He wants to damage Humble and Fred's relationship. He wants to damage their relationship with Todd Shapiro. It's actually pretty fucking gross.

And then after everybody left, they all got together and magically they were friends. Magically they're all friends shitting on me. That's not those three. That's this industry, man. Nah, but it's the quality of character. It makes strange bedfellows, for sure. Misery loves company, right?

Well, I don't know if it's misery loves company. No, it is. To the point where even the same... No, I don't know if they do. But to the point where the same thing, you know, it's... I had heard... Someone told me that this guy who used to work with Jason and Todd had become great friends. And I thought, you know, if I only told Jason what Todd said about his wife and kids when he wasn't looking.

Oh, God, you're doing it right now. Holy shit. Okay. And bad props to Zeke, who I don't know at all, never met. You can almost hear in his voice, like he's sitting there and he's like, am I enabling this guy? This narcissist? So good on you, Zeke. Well done.

But what I'm hearing there, talk about the polarizing, dividing, causing chaos. He's now basically, obviously, he's again, all allegedly, we already know he's said many, many big lies on this podcast. So I wouldn't believe anything he said, to be honest. But he is suggesting that in private, Todd Shapiro has said horrible things about Jason Barr's wife and children. And again, I don't believe that anything Dean says is true. But in a world where that is true, and that was said privately, who puts that on a podcast that's being recorded for public consumption? Remember, I didn't hack into his voicemail and grab his voicemails.

I'm not reading his emails. This is not a secretly recorded conversation because somebody was wearing a wire. This is Dean and Zeke in a studio recording an episode of Dean Blundell's podcast that he could share with the Dean Blundell faithful and the masses on DeanBlundell.com. And again, he's completely clean and sober. And as he says in this episode, he's been sober for months. And he apparently has realized that, you know, to be a nicer guy, he's had this epiphany of some sort. So this is actually after he stops drinking and decides to be a nicer guy. That's what we're hearing now and he's trying to make jason barr aware that todd shapiro is

talking who knows saying who knows what about his wife and kids and that's fucking gross no because i i couldn't do that i couldn't look at someone that i was shitty to behind their back or not. Couldn't do it. And so I have a barrier and I have a line that that is not going to be part of my life. And I'm going to focus on such a slippery slope. Look, at the end of the day, I don't listen. I listened to Todd's show when a fan wrote a note with a link to a section of Todd's show. I didn't.

And it was, are you guys going to respond to this? So naturally you press play. And I pointed it out to you. And at that time, and this is two years ago, we both said no. Like, why would we even talk about this? So I just sent an email back to the person who had asked the question said no. Like, why would we even talk about this? So I just sent an email back to the person

who had asked the question saying no. Can we do a podcast? Yeah, it's nothing about Todd. It's nothing about... And if people don't like what... If people want to say what we're doing is terrible, okay. You know, that's fine.

It's absolutely fine i'm and i and i don't think you and i are here to be great no i don't think this and for anybody who's listening if we've kept you this whole time and you've had the thought that this was the pursuit of greatness no you've been grossly misled and i'm terribly sorry i apologize for wasting hours of your time you know it's funny too that you bring that up because you know you have people because of deanblundell.com and and it's been according to page views very successful yeah but according to balance sheets i haven't sold it because i have no desire to sell it but is it are you enjoying it love it done love it love it that's it because why do we have to respond to any of this stuff or use it as content i'll take it out yeah like i just wonder why you uh

because i you know why because i well then don't take it out. But the reason why is because I want people to know that as nice as I am, incredibly nice. I also have a very hard line when it comes to people's lies and people's bullshit and hypocrisy, which was the original. Do you see how I've come full circle? You know, have you ever unintentionally been hypocritical? Not, not that, uh, no,

it's never been pointed out to you. Nope. I have, I don't know. I have had, I have had an opinion on something and then had a different opinion later. That's called evolution. And been pointed out that I,

you know, or that me doing this is very similar to something that I'm criticizing. And it's like, yeah, okay. Oh, I guess I am. So I don't think you have to be evil to be hypocritical. I think you can learn from your own hypocrisy. And for me in this whole conversation

is like, who cares? I think it's funny that somebody who bashes you said, Hey, you should come on. Yeah. That was the point. Why don't you come on the show? But that was, I'm not bringing any of these guys up to get on the backs of their enormous success since they've all left radio. It's a weird thing to say.

But what I'm saying is, is that there's a reason why i'm not doing the dude's podcast and there's a reason why it's a friend right like outside of this world outside of talking behind somebody's back yeah think of it in clear conversational talk context right um you're a loser you're terrible you want to hang out yeah i hate i'm just chiming in again uh and i've already been clear that i actually didn't do uh you're a loser and i didn't even do you're terrible i think i did your your show is not for me which is true heck this podcast i'm listening to now as i record it it's not for me either but um the hangout part i just want to address that. And I have to book,

I don't have to, I want to book guests on my show. So all the time I'm inviting people and scheduling them. This is actually the hardest part of the Toronto Mic'd experience is, you know, wrangling the guests

and getting them to confirm. I have a phone call with Maestro Fresh West later today for something I'm working on. And there's a bunch of balls in the air all the time when it comes to guests and scheduling and stuff like that and invitations and stuff like that. And who I want on, it's people I'm interested in talking to, but not necessarily people I'm fans of. There are definitely guests I've had on and guests I will have on that I wouldn't say I'm a fan of their work. I think they'd be an interesting episode.

So when I invited Dean three times, it wasn't because I was a fan of his work. It was because I think it would be an interesting discussion because we could do some real talk. We could talk about the 102.1 experience. We could talk about the whole fan thing. We could talk about talk about again on that third email that he read part of uh we could talk about his newfound sobriety and i could ask him like does you know about things that he said publicly it would be interesting so i'm not actually doing a whole like that there's no hypocritical nature here it's all very authentic and straight up real talk in that it's not, you suck, you're terrible, let's hang out.

I don't have any desire at all to hang out with Dean Blundell. And after I heard this recording he did with Zeke, I lost any inkling of desire to have him on Toronto Mic'd. There won't be a fourth invitation to Dean Blundell to come on Toronto Mic'd. There won't be a fourth invitation to Dean Blundell to come on Toronto Mic'd. He's always welcome to write me. My DMs are open. My email address is on torontomic.com. Anybody can write me, and I read everything, and I pretty much reply to everything, I think. So Dean's always welcome to write me an email, and I will read it and write back, but there will be no instigation by me in this regard.

That's done. Hate you. I've hated you for 20 years. Can you help me with my podcast? Yeah. Yeah. No. Right.

And that was the same thing when those guys asked us to be on. That is worth investigating. It's schizophrenic almost. And I say that with no disrespect to people with schizophrenia or any any other personality disorders or differently abled in any way no yeah it's not weird and it most definitely oh yeah and again you can't joke there's uh people listening who have loved ones who are suffering from schizophrenia. And there's no joke in there. But just to use the word weird, there is nothing weird about me having Dean Blundell on the show. Again, I'll watch 60 Minutes and you'll, you know, Morley Safer, whoever,

will have an interview with an evil dictator. This is not an endorsement. This is having a conversation about it. You're talking to somebody who is newsworthy or interesting, not somebody who's to be celebrated and worshipped. Differently abled. That's differently abled. But I'm just giving context. It's not content. I'm giving context to what we're saying.

Cam agrees with me, right? I'm just giving context. It's not content. I'm giving context to what we're saying. What we're saying. Cam agrees with me, right? I'm right again. Thank you. I'm just giving context to that. You know, hey, this podcast, I've offered this guy the opportunity to come on this one because I'm nice. No, because you're lazy.

I don't necessarily disagree with that but um it's listen if if you've been shitty to somebody in your life don't expect them to help you that's my point right if you've talked poorly about using the word help and he's going to take issue with you using the word help why do you think he has people that have been in in this industry on all the time? He's trying to have... He's a paperclip. He's trying to have content. Yeah.

And does he provide great content? Or do the people he has on... Yeah, he believes his perspective on this city will provide great content when he battles it out with you or when he discusses things with you. That's why he won't come on this podcast because he doesn't want to battle it out.

But that's what I mean. It's less altruistic when he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. I want to be the source. None of this makes any sense in the first place, though, because if you say somebody is a loser or a bad person or terrible. Or a bully, all that stuff. Why do you want to hang out with them?

Bully. I don't know Dean Blundell. I never worked with Dean Blundell. I've never met Dean Blundell. I don't speak of things I don't know dean blundell i never worked with dean blundell i've never met dean blundell i know i don't speak of things i don't know when guests come on and they paint the picture of a workplace bully that is the perspective of the guest uh i am not in a place to tell a guest that they're wrong i wasn't there this is a guest perspective and this is actually a core reason why I felt it was only fair that Dean get an opportunity to come on Toronto Mic'd because,

yes, several people had come on and basically painted a lousy picture of him. And he's well with, he should have the right to rebut. He wasn't in the room when these things were said. Let him come in and we can talk about it. But the help help that word help um i never thought oh dean will help i don't have this thought of oh that's gonna get monster ratings and and no that's not really how the podcast world works like uh you know maybe you get these one and dones but uh i'm actually looking for like subscribers who will kind of invest their time long term and sort of will be equally as likely to listen to, I don't know, an episode about Tom Thompson or the Tom Wilson episode than they will when Dean Blundell comes on or whatever. So I'm actually kind of looking at a more like long term holistic approach to this thing.

And I'm not looking for some big bang that'll get me help as he says uh early on i think the first time uh i wrote him i was uh it was probably right after the shapiro thing because that was like early days of having guests on this show and i think at that time i was all like oh you know uh i gotta be all like 60 minutes here and give him a chance to come on or whatever. But I've never really thought of when I asked Dean on is because I think he'd be interesting. But I have lots of people on. And if you go McLean to Strombo to, well, Dave Hodge to Roger Ashby to Dwight Drummond and so forth to Maestro Fresh West. So a lot of people come on. I don't consider it help. I just consider it part of the, you know, this passion project, if you will, the Real Talk experience.

But back to Dean. That's weird. Because you know why? Because people are weak. People are weak-minded and it's easy to be weak and look for friendship in misery. Dan, are you good at writing people off out of your life? If you just realized,

oh, that's the way that person is. Can you live tomorrow on without that person? Yeah. Yeah. I've had to do that. Yep. Luckily not in the last 15 years,

but do you enjoy it? No, it sucks. That's where we're different. Totally different. I'm fine with it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's why we get along.

Yeah. It's a light bulb that goes off in your head. You're like, oh, take her user. What a great investment I've made in not allowing them to do that to me. i've invested in this as a relationship or friendship or employment or partnership or whatever i've invested in yeah oh i get it you're a taker you are going to try to win at our relationship and i will not be taking advantage of it anymore

and i don't i don't want to have any relationships that are based on winning. No. Can't win a relationship. Bingo. And that's the whole thing here is this. You have said you don't like this person. That's it. And I'm not going to change.

That's the part that I, and you know the whole thing about grant me the serenity to accept the things I can't change, the courage to change the things I can. I can. The wisdom. And the wisdom to know the difference. That's the thing, is that I have serenity in my life knowing that I don't want hypocrisy or...

So you have serenity now? Or weak-minded people. Serenity now? Whoa. Seinfeld reference. Serenity now! Are you supposed to yell it? Serenity.

It wasn't specific! Serenity now, insanity later. Braun, you're hot. You're on fire, Costanza. Still the greatest show ever. But that, in closing, let me just point this out. Festivus. Is that, it's time for Feats of Strength.

You and Dan have to wrestle. The airing of grievances. I love Seinfeld. Anyway, in closing, let me just say this, is that you can become a better person and still have parameters that you live by because you are committed and convinced that the people that are faucets and there are people that are drains, right?

The people that are drains won't get another faucet in their life that's worth it because all they do is take. So you can decide to be a faucet or a drain in your life. And that's it, I think, in terms of there's a chunk. The reason there was a gap, you might have noticed an edit break earlier on. I had to carve out a big chunk where he went at, and I won't name the person or even the gender, so no one can figure this out. But he told a story kind of like when he was going at Humble. He was going at Fred.

He was going at Todd. He was going at Jason. He was going at Fred. He was going at Todd. He was going at Jason. And he went at somebody else. And he made these statements that were more fucking gross than anything else you heard in that episode. And were so like, basically, I wasn't, you know, he hosted that content in the public domain. I wasn't going to do that.

So I carved it out. But everything else was just basically the conversation about yours truly. And I just wanted to respond. So again, a lot of fibs in there, a lot of lies, a lot of unfair statements, and a lot of mistruths. And Dean Blundell is a popular public figure in this city. And people will hear his podcast and take his word for everything. And what am I, you know, so what was I left to do except what I just did here?

So that brings us to the end of this unnumbered episode, which may disappear at any time. The reason I'm keeping it unnumbered is so it can disappear into the abyss and nobody will be the wiser. But thanks for listening. And we'll be back with a regular episode. Festivus is here. And I can't wait for a visit from Elvis for episode 413.