A Tenth Very Terry Christmas

Matt Cundill  0:00  
A Merry Christmas. Terry

Terry Dimonte  0:07  
and a Merry Christmas to you, Matthew, do you know how

Matt Cundill  0:11  
many times we've done this? I don't.

Terry Dimonte  0:13  
I guess we started, we started recording. Okay, yeah, Merry Christmas, Matthew, I'm not sure. Is it 10? Have we done 10? This is 10. Wow. Hey, it's our 10th Anniversary.

Matt Cundill  0:24  
Back in 2016 I think we did one of these.

Terry Dimonte  0:28  
This was this? Why was this your idea? Now, I was still working in radio when you said, Let's do a Christmas show. I think, Hey,

Matt Cundill  0:34  
I was just starting a podcast, and I hit Christmas and I didn't know what else to do for a Christmas episode, other than talk to somebody who really, really loves Christmas. Oh, and that's you.

Terry Dimonte  0:44  
That's that would be me, yeah, I really, really love Christmas.

Matt Cundill  0:47  
Back then, you didn't really know what a podcast was, though I

Terry Dimonte  0:50  
did not which is, which is really interesting, considering that I've been hosting a podcast with my buddy Ted bird now for what, four years, I think a little more than four years. But back, yeah, back in 2016 that was a fairly new landscape. I know a lot of people started podcasts in like, 2010 2011 but it was 2016 I think it was still fairly new, wasn't it?

Matt Cundill  1:15  
I think it wasn't as mainstream as it is. It was a little more complicated. Back in, you know, 2010 you had to, you know, we're gonna get an RSS feed, and now we got to attach it to Apple podcast. And now we got to do all sorts of gymnastics. Got easier in 2015 and now today, it's so easy, you and Ted can do it.

Terry Dimonte  1:34  
Well, I was going to say it's so easy that everybody on the planet has a podcast.

Matt Cundill  1:41  
Do you think there are too many podcasts?

Terry Dimonte  1:43  
Well, I don't know. I don't know what you define too many. Anybody can have one. So you know, if you want to do one, then it adds to the pile. I don't think you can say it's too many. I think a lot of people, you know, much like myself and Ted, are finding out that it's really, really hard to to get to the, you know, to be heard, to be seen in, in the podcast landscape. It's the same, I think, kind of the same principle as music. Now, you know, I've heard my friends in the music business say they used to be the funnel, you know, the record companies used to be the funnel of the talent, you know. And they, you know, they would get hundreds of 1000s of demo tapes and whittle them down and take their chances and and kind of be the, I don't know, the arbiters of of you know, what should be pushed to the fore, and now you can go on YouTube and try and get a record deal, but I think it's much harder. And it's the same thing if you have a podcast, you know, I guess you have to find a niche and try and get heard above the fray. I always, you know, I tell people, if you know, if you're Jason Bateman and Will Arnett and Sean Hayes and you take their, here's an old term, their Rolodex, and the number of people that they know that helps them get, you know, I think, pushed to the front of the pile, you know, Ted. And I can't call, we can't call Brad Pitt or Bradley Cooper to get them on the podcast. So I, you know, it's, I don't know. Are there too many of them? I guess not. Can you find what you're looking for? Absolutely, if you're doing a podcast and trying to be heard above the noise and get to the top of the heap? Pretty tough to do. I know

Matt Cundill  3:44  
it's a ridiculous question. It's like saying, oh, Terry, do you think that there's too many books out there?

Terry Dimonte  3:48  
Yeah, yeah. I listen. I you know what it's it's cool that people want to play and want to be creative. You know, my wife has a podcast. She does something called the concert goers with her good friend, G, and they talk about their experiences going to concerts, because they both love live music, and they have a lot of fun doing it. It's, you know, it's, it's not sponsored. I don't think it's in the top 20 podcasts in the land, but, you know, they have a they have a loyal following, and they enjoy doing it because they enjoy live music. So I think there's a lot of those, you know, kinds of podcasts in the world, people who are, you know, I guess, real passionate about model trains or cars or whatever, and, you know, knitting whatever. And you Yeah, let's have a podcast. Why not? If you can do it. And as you point out, anybody can now, you can buy a rodecaster for what, few 100 bucks,

Matt Cundill  4:45  
yeah, about an 800 bucks, and plug in and away you go. Yep, you have one, don't you?

Terry Dimonte  4:50  
I do, yeah, when, when I was living in British Columbia, I actually, I bought it knowing I was going to be out of work, and just said, let's get. Road caster be, you know, before you, before you're retired and and just you know, have it in the house, and it came in handy.

Matt Cundill  5:09  
Has podcasting surprised you? Like having, you know, removed yourself largely from radio and now doing a podcast every week, on and off throughout the year. Has it surprised you in any way that you thought I was, I'm not gonna do a podcast and, like, no, wait, I like this.

Terry Dimonte  5:25  
Yeah, it has actually, I'm, I'm taken with, I'm taken with the response. You know, at first, it was when Ted and I first started to do it, you know, for, I guess people who are listening to this know the history, but Ted and I worked as a radio partnership for many, many years in old school radio, and when we started the podcast, a lot of it was nostalgia, people who missed us being on the radio or remembered us from their high school days, whatever. And now I find there's, you know, we're getting. What's interesting is, you know, the mail from San Francisco and Hong Kong and Brazil and England and, you know, Sweden and all of those places that you know people who are ex Montrealers. I've always thought X Montrealers. There's a thing ex Montrealers never really become ex Montrealers. A little bit of Montreal always stays with them. So a lot of people have been finding the podcast for kind of a Montreal fix that that's that surprised me, and what's been interesting to watch is, you know, we're not setting the world on fire, but the podcast is growing, and it's growing in a way that I used to like my radio audience to grow. If you were looking at a graph of, you know, the growth of my my very first day on mornings to, you know, seven years later, the graph of growth would look like a set of stairs, not like a giant, you know, triangle, not a giant peak, and then a giant fall. It's just been slow, you know, it's, it's, it seems to be, you know, we had this many people, and then those people told other people, and then those people told other people, and you're starting to see it grow so that that's been a lovely surprise, and also the the public acknowledgement. I now get recognized in mostly English Montreal because of my history in the media in English Montreal. But now more and more, it's like people come up to me and say, Hey, we're really enjoying the podcast that that's caught me by surprise.

Matt Cundill  7:45  
I have to tell a story about yesterday I was at the Snowden Deli. And the Snowden deli is home to a podcast,

Terry Dimonte  7:56  
what's it called, the corner booth with Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand, and

Matt Cundill  8:00  
I was just standing there waiting for my order to be fulfilled, and a man walked in and said, Where's the podcast? And this, this man was pushing 60. He said he was from Calgary. He liked the show because it kept him in touch with Montreal, yes. And he went over and took a look at the booth, and then the man behind the counter said, Yeah, and you can see it on YouTube. And so the two things that struck me were the connection that people had to the podcast, the you know, the fact that they went to the deli to go pick up some stuff. And who doesn't go to Snowden deli

Terry Dimonte  8:34  
to pick up the greatest Deli in the history of the world?

Matt Cundill  8:37  
Yeah, Snowden Dell. That's what I had for dinner last night. Oh, lucky you. Oh, boy. And the fact that the man said it's on YouTube, yeah? And one of the things that people don't say is, oh, you can listen to it on Apple, or you can listen to it on Spotify, yeah? And listen to an ability. People go right to YouTube because YouTube is so easy, it's so universal. The search is very fast, yeah, find things right away. And I know a lot of podcasters get all uppity and say, Well, you know, if it's on YouTube, it's a video, it's not a podcast, but it's just so easy to find shit that's,

Terry Dimonte  9:09  
that's I love, that there's a, there's a bunch of nonsense in the podcast world, and that that's one of the bits of nonsense that makes me laugh, because it's on YouTube, it's not a podcast. I never understood that sentiment. And what's great about the the corner booth podcast is Bill and Aaron are, you know, terrific and longtime Montreal broadcaster and writer. And also it it really helped that they were on the Gazette platform, so people who were subscribing to the Gazette looking at the Gazette on a daily basis. You know, a lot of ex Montrealers, Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, wherever, are looking at the Gazette every day. Because, like I said, Montreal kind of never leaves you. You're always interested in what's going on. And people that went to the Gazette found the podcast. And again, it's a, it's a Montreal, you know, if not Montreal, certainly a Quebec focused podcast on the Gazette website. And I think that that brings in a lot of people, like that man you run into from Calgary.

Matt Cundill  10:14  
And a good thing about, you know, if you have a podcast, is if you do have that marketing branch like the Gazette, and you've got, you know, you've got a comedy network behind you. And Jason Bateman has Amazon, yeah, it you just need a little something, yeah?

Terry Dimonte  10:29  
Well, Jason, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, you know, they have their their careers and their connections in in Hollywood, and I think $80 million if I'm not mistaken, so they got a leg up on a lot of people. I think, I think they the rights were bought for something like 80 million bucks. Yeah, it was 100

Matt Cundill  10:51  
million for the, well, 100 million for the Kelsey, okay, 80 million for smart lists, yeah. And most of this stuff is gonna wind up, you know, probably in front of our, you know, on prime or something, and then people talking at each other on TV, and we're going to watch it, and that's going to be called the podcast.

Terry Dimonte  11:08  
What do you think happens with, you know, this is, this is because you are the sound off Podcast Network, and you've been in the game much longer than I have. What happens with, you know, episodes that I recorded four years ago. What's interesting to me, we recorded a Christmas special four years ago, and I looked at it last night, and it grows a little every year. So those episodes, they stay there, and people go back to them, right? It becomes a catalog, like a like a band sort of thing.

Matt Cundill  11:41  
Yeah, so this is a giant mistake a lot of people make in podcasting, is that they market their latest episode and feel they've done their homework and move on to the next thing in life. And the fact of the matter is that people are going to get half their downloads from their back catalog. Yeah.

Terry Dimonte  11:56  
It was. It dawned on me this year that you know, that episode that we did, we did a Christmas special, if you're looking for it at this time of the year especially, we had Peter Mansbridge, Jan Arden, PJ stock, both our moms. We had a Paul Reid clip. Montrealers will know who I'm talking about when I say Paul Reed Christmas thanks to Mike Reid, his son who controls the Paul Reid Christmas Special, he gave us permission to use it anyway. It's about two hours, and we recorded it four years ago, and on YouTube there was, you know, 500 people, then 700 then 1000 and I looked last night, and it's now approaching 2500 views. It seems people find it right around this time of the year. And I guess it's up to me every year to remind people that it's there, correct. Yeah, probably they're searching. Paul Reed, oh, there you go. Okay, yeah. So a lot of it comes down to the search, yeah. And I can tell, because I've done, nearly done 500 of these episodes.

Matt Cundill  12:58  
Terry, of these sound off the sound off. Podcast, yes, and still in the top five is a guy named, oh shit, I can't remember his name, okay, Corey.

Terry Dimonte  13:10  
Corey. Corey Hart.

Matt Cundill  13:14  
He's the Pro. I'm embarrassed now because I yeah, I should be able to recall this stuff. Very, very welcome, Lee. Welcome to 55 let's go he's the program director at W I X X, okay, Green Bay, Wisconsin, and he came on my show and but he's top five that like, who's not looking for Green Bay? Yeah, when, when they're it's Corey Carter, Program Director at W i, x, x, okay, in Green Bay, and people are obviously looking for anything involving the Green Bay Packers. Yes, and we do tell some Green Bay Packers stories, but people just want to hear what it's like to, I guess, work radio in Green Bay. And I'll tell you what it is. Terry, that station is 24 hours a day. They've got a live body in that control room.

Terry Dimonte  13:58  
Yeah. Well, welcome to our theory of radio. By the way, this is a podcast, so bear with me for a second. Sure. It's one of the joys with the podcast. This year, I'm in a specially designed Studio, and I'm wearing a hoodie that's way too warm for me, so I'm taking it off. There we go.

Matt Cundill  14:15  
Sorry, I locked you in a box. It's okay. I

Terry Dimonte  14:19  
didn't want to tell the story of the boy in the box, speaking of Corey Hart. But yeah, I'm, I'm in Matt's fancy studio.

Matt Cundill  14:27  
Yeah, actually. And I'll mention that, you know, normally we should just be sitting around, just on a couch and eating and drinking, but I'm such a so picky about the sound that I wanted should be. I wanted to sound good in people's ears. I don't want it to sound like, you know, if we recorded this down, recorded this downstairs in my, you know, my living room, there's concrete all over the place. It's not going to be a very nice experience for everybody.

Terry Dimonte  14:49  
It's attention to detail, like you were saying about the radio station in Green Bay, small detail to use radio the way Marconi intended it. And. With a human connection.

Matt Cundill  15:01  
It's a giant mistake people make now, and that's they. They're so hell bent on looking good with the video and whatnot. I can't tell you the number of videos I watch. It's like the host has an echo. It sounds terrible. Yeah, and I'm out, I'm sorry, yeah, it's and people are out. They don't they don't stick around

Terry Dimonte  15:17  
for that. Well, I noticed that too, because now, you know, not just because I host a podcast, but also because I'm not a radio fan, not because I'm I'm bitter or, you know, I know better than what the radio business knows. I just the the era of radio that exists now doesn't interest me. I don't find it compelling or entertaining in any way. So I never get in the car without having eight or nine or 10 podcasts downloaded on my phone. And if I see a podcast, you know, I read about a podcast, and I think, Oh, that's interesting. I'm going to download that one and I put it on and if it's technically shite, I'm out, you know, if it's badly miked, or it sounds like a bad zoom connection with your guest. I'm out. I just, I don't, and I don't think you know if you can do it in your studio, and I can do it with our studio. I don't think it's very hard to make sure that you have quality, quality sound and even quality picture. If you're going to go on YouTube, it's attention to detail that I think is important in the podcast landscape, too.

Matt Cundill  16:28  
Yeah, well, you there's a lot of arrogance out there. There's a lot of arrogance out there for people who think, well, the content will supersede. And I'm like, Well, you know what? What you have to say is really not all that interesting anyway. And there's a lot of other stuff out there. Like I said, there's 4 million podcasts out there. And is that? How many there are 4,000,004 point 5 million, or something like that. Wow. But you know what? There's only about a little under 400,000 that are active. And by active, it means having released an episode in the last 30 days, or something like, Well,

Terry Dimonte  16:57  
okay, well, we take I modeled ours after the if you if you're from Montreal, you know how this works. French media works in a season. So they take the summer off, they go back just before Labor Day, and then they're off for a couple of weeks at Christmas, and then they work till just before St Jean Baptist, and then they take the summer off, and we've done the same thing. So right now, where the the standing by podcast is on a Christmas break. So our last episode was December 17, and we're back on January 6. So that counts is maybe not every week, but I find that people come back and find us,

Matt Cundill  17:40  
oh, they definitely, by the way, they take breaks too.

Terry Dimonte  17:43  
Yeah, that's what I like. I does anybody listen to this? Think about that. On Christmas Day, I think who's listening to you? And I go on and on. Eli Corey, hi, Eli, Merry Christmas.

Matt Cundill  17:57  
Hi, Eli, you're right about that. He's, he's overseas. Yeah, he's, he's the first one to download, yeah,

Terry Dimonte  18:04  
Eli is in Sweden now, and was just a great friend born and raised Montreal, or who ended up being my producer in Calgary when I first got out there. And we got to know each other very well as a lovely, lovely guy who's a fan and and is now Swedish.

Matt Cundill  18:23  
He did the all night show at 990 hits while I was doing the all night show at show. So we spent a lot of time together, going back and forth between the studio. Yeah, I would mainly go to his studio because I had the longer records, right?

Terry Dimonte  18:36  
You had the advantage of Dark Side of the Moon. I certainly

Matt Cundill  18:40  
did very good. Hey, speaking of radio, there was a Winnipeg radio reunion this year. Well, yeah, how did that go?

Terry Dimonte  18:48  
It was fine. I was, yeah, it was, it was fun. I went out to Winnipeg for two reasons. Number one was you and the boys. When I say you and the boys, I mean you and your boys and and number two was my longtime friendship with the last stir of the morning, Don Percy. Don Percy is a in from our era of radio, a legendary radio personality that is still known in Winnipeg at the age of 88 years old. He still gets recognized when we take him out to dinner or lunch. And I thought, You know what? I'm going to come in for it, because I get to see you. I get to see Don and I was able to reconnect with some people I haven't seen in a very, very long time. Brother, Jake came in for it. Tom Milroy was there. There was a lot of faces that I hadn't seen in many, many years. And yeah,

Matt Cundill  19:42  
it was fun. I got to sit at the good table with you.

Terry Dimonte  19:45  
Yeah, you did. I don't know how we scored, but we scored a pretty good table. It was me and Jake and you and Randy Renaud. Randy Renaud, I think Wayne Yasu was there. Terry Classen. I'm gonna forget somebody. Bob McBride was there. These are all names Howard. Howard manshine, of course. Howard is a Winnipeg staple, Winnipeg classic, and there were some people missing. And this is from the era. It's a hard to describe this era to people who weren't around, but when 92 city. FM went on the air back in 19 summer or spring, I think, of 78 it was it just, I mean, it just, it changed the way FM radio sounded in Winnipeg and became a bit of a legendary place with a staff of people that went on to do much bigger things, Andy frost, Howard manshine, brother, Jake Gary Obi and what was nice about the the the way they organized it. Raccoon Carney, who was a legend himself in am radio in in the 1970s in Vancouver. He's a Winnipeg guy, and he helped organize it, and they did a nice job organizing it, and they put together a video of people who couldn't attend, which was really nice.

Matt Cundill  21:15  
Yeah, that was a that was a big night for Winnipeg. I think that my takeaway was, I think I said, I'm one of the youngest persons here. You were, yeah, I

Terry Dimonte  21:24  
think you were, yeah. That's, that's the thing about reunions, right? I mean, anybody who's listening to this, who's been a, been to a high school reunion, knows what we're talking about. It's like, oh shit, wow, we're all old now, it's because when I was in when I worked at City FM, which is the reason I was invited. I was 20. And you know, you, you, you see that you haven't seen these people in 30 years, and you have that picture in your mind of what they looked like when you were all 20. And now we're all 60, plus, most of us. And yeah, it's, it's like, Oh yeah, right, I forgot we all aged 40 years since we'd seen each other. But it was, it was, it was a really nice thing to do, because I think it was something to celebrate,

Matt Cundill  22:13  
just in case people need to follow along on the map they're trying to figure out, oh, is Matt in Winnipeg? Where is he? What's going on? Why are they together? So here's, here's how we draw the map. Two years ago, I spoke to you in BC. Last year we did this remotely. I was in Winnipeg, and you were in your home in San Adele, and this year we're together in st Adele. And the missing part, I guess people would know, is that I moved to San Adele, yes, and became your neighbor.

Terry Dimonte  22:41  
You came back to Quebec, like we all do at one point or another. We piss and moan and bitch and move away, and then we come home because we miss everything from the Snowden Dell to a decent baguette to the I think I've learned to steer away from the the yelling and screaming and of, you know, politics and all the bullshit that comes along with, you know, being a quebecer, and I also have got to a point in my life as I think you do, because you aren't in st Adele proper, you're up top of a mountain. Well, what they call a mountain in Quebec. It's not a mountain like you would call in Canmore or even in Langley. When you look at the mountains, you go, oh yeah, those are mountains in the Laurentian mountains. They're like, Oh okay. Those are, those are kind of mountains, I guess. And we're in the country where it's quiet and not as chaotic and less traffic, less yelling and screaming, no orange cones, and less potholes. It's a it's a country gentleman experience. Wouldn't you agree?

Matt Cundill  23:52  
Matt, yeah, so I've only been doing this for little under two months. You have a little more experience than I do here, so I'm still a little bit shell shocked, and trying to, yeah, trying to get my bearings as it were, as to, where did I move to? Why am I here?

Terry Dimonte  24:06  
What am I doing at the top of this? Yeah, this mountain, but it's, it's pretty nice, I'll tell you. I think in terms of, you know, everybody knows this. If you live in Toronto or you live in Montreal, or you live in Calgary or live in Vancouver. You know, we lived in Langley, which was the the Fraser Valley. And I liked the Fraser Valley because when I started to go to the Fraser Valley in the 90s, it was relatively quiet and empty, and with the influx of people that have been coming to the country over the last 1015, years, the Fraser Valley isn't quiet anymore, and it's chock a block full of people, full of traffic. If you live in Toronto, it's become unhinged in terms of commute times. And if you live in Montreal, you know you just you can't go anywhere. If you're a Montrealer and you. Listening to this podcast, if I tell you the de Carrie expressway, you know what highway I'm talking about. It used to be called the de carrier expressway when it was built. Now you just call it the de Carrie or the trench, because it's not an expressway. It hasn't been for a very long time. And when I was working in radio, I was working from 530 to 10 in the morning, and in say, 2011 2012 2013 you could get on the to carry at 1030 or 11 in the morning and be relatively traffic free, at least moving freely. You know, traffic would flow until about two o'clock now, with the influx of people, and I assume it's just population growth, the de Carrie is bumper to bumper from seven in the morning till 11 at night all the time. So just working in and around the city, trying to get from NDG to the East End. If you're trying to get from Brassard to Beaconsfield, if you're trying to get from Beaconsfield to the Bell Center, or whatever it is you're doing, you need to add an extra half hour to your commute. A lot of people are hoping the new REM is going to fix that. We'll see what happens. But I'm at a point in my life where I don't want to do that anymore. So we're an hour away from Montreal, so when we have a craving for a particular restaurant, we want to go see a hockey game. You want to go visit your mom, anything that we have to do in town, we pick our day, pick our time, and we go get what we need and get the shot of electricity that Montreal gives you, and then back to the back to the country, and I've found a Nice routine in it, and I think you will do

Matt Cundill  27:05  
by the way, I did all those things. Last week. I went to a hockey game. We we went to a restaurant together. We went to the monkland Tavern for a nice Christmas dinner. Yes, because we don't have companies anymore that right, give us a Christmas dinner. So we made our own. Yep, that was very nice.

Terry Dimonte  27:19  
Yeah, and the monkland Tavern is another, an absolute jewel in the crown of Montreal. It's a I was saying to you there, you know, it's hard to hard to replicate that experience, the vibe, the staff, the food, it's, it's a very special place.

Matt Cundill  27:34  
Yeah, and heading into town, you know, I take the car, park it somewhere, hopefully free, and then jump on a metro, do your stuff and head home.

Terry Dimonte  27:42  
Well, you did the crazy I think the crazy part for you was yesterday, as we're recording this, because you went into town, got a bunch of errands done, and then you headed north at around four o'clock, which is the worst time to do that, and still, it was only about 90 minutes, right? Exactly. I don't think that we're alone, either. I think a lot of people you know, especially with since the pandemic, with remote work, a lot of people have have made a beeline for outside the, you know, the the city. And I think it's part of it. I think comes with age. You know, if you had told me when I was in my 30s that I would live in the Laurentians, I would have told you you were out of your mind. I would have never thought about living outside the city. And now I can't imagine living in the city.

Matt Cundill  28:29  
I did not also on my bingo card have me living in a rural spot like this, but it's just, it's kind of just the way the whole thing has evolved. I mean, yeah,

Terry Dimonte  28:40  
and you're an independent business owner, so you can use this as has as headquarters, and still enjoy the the travel that you like to do. And we're an hour from one of the most connected airports in North America. So I think once you get used to the rhythm of it, you're going to wonder why you didn't do this five years ago.

Matt Cundill  29:08  
Well, the rhythm of it is interesting, because when I was in Winnipeg, it was always like, Okay, go, go, go. I'm going to work and do stuff now I've got this beautiful, serene view in front of me. I just stare out the window. Yeah, I don't get any work done, I find myself just staring out the window. Oh, look, there's some deer.

Terry Dimonte  29:25  
Well, where? Where Matt lives at the top of a mountain like, again, not A, not a mountain like, you know, the Rockies, but it's a top of, well, Laurentian mountain. And when I come to his place, I drive up his long driveway, and I shut the car off, and I opened the door, and I sit there just for about 30 or second, 30 or 40 seconds. I did it this morning when I got here, and I just, I listen for the quiet like you just listen to the quiet. There's you're you're listening, but there's nothing to hear except maybe the wrong. Bustling of the trees and your view reminds me of a view that my friends in Stowe Vermont used to have. It's anybody who's familiar with Vermont or the Laurentians, or, I guess, New Hampshire, to a certain degree, that's that's the environment that that we're in, and again, we're, I don't know, what are you 10 minutes from the grocery store? Yes, 20 minutes from Costco, so

Matt Cundill  30:32  
I 40 minutes from an Apple store. There you go.

Terry Dimonte  30:35  
So yeah, I mean, we're not reinventing the wheel. A lot of people have been doing this for the last 10 years, but as a as a newcomer to it, I highly

Matt Cundill  30:45  
recommend it. So the internet speed is way faster than it is in Winnipeg, and it shouldn't be. Yeah, what's my deal with that? Well, they don't take care of Winnipeg. I'm sure that the people at Bell and Rogers, they look at Winnipeg and say that's fast enough for them.

Terry Dimonte  31:01  
That's a shame, because, you know, Winnipeg is when I was there in for the radio reunion, and when I go to visit you and the boys in Dawn, I'm kind of saddened by the do I say the state of Winnipeg? I was about to say, the state of the city, I was really surprised by, you know, the level of crime and River Heights and the, you know, the downtown area. They've been talking about that goddamn downtown area in Winnipeg since I moved there in the summer of 78 they since then, they haven't been able to figure it out. And it's really, it's really becoming overcrowded over crimed. I know that's not a word, but you know what I'm saying, and it's funny that the the well, it's not funny. It's typical that the internet companies that are based in the East don't think Winnipeg is a big deal because, you know, it's kind of a major city.

Matt Cundill  32:00  
It's all but it's all cost, right? Yeah. So a good example is actually in River Heights, they've never really been able to put up another tower, because nobody wants to put another tower. It's so residential, like, the way they planned out the city is just so poor that they've hamstrung themselves into, you know, doing anything that would be considered progressive. And anytime anybody floats a progressive idea in that city, there is a politician who stands up and says, We're not going to do that. That will never work. Here is the first thing they say. And the second thing they say is, we need a made in Winnipeg solution. And then I have to remind them that the made in Winnipeg solutions are the why the city is in the state that it is in River Heights. There's somebody going through your, you know, your garbage every night and your garage and helping themselves to whatever. Downtown, there's not much downtown, people, there's a hockey game that goes on. Then people will leave the hockey game and go home that I don't know why there's not more restaurants around what is now Canada Life Center. I don't know why the space between Portage and Main all the way to Canada life center looks, you know, as $1 store and a few other things. I don't know why it took so, you know, 45 years to open up Portage and Main to pedestrian traffic, and they're still arguing about whether or not that's a good thing. It's and then I don't know why my tax bill went up by, you know, double digits, and that was the last straw for us. We looked at each other, Avery, my wife and I, we just said we're out of here. We cannot pay. No, we felt like we were being like, legitimately screwed by the city. Well, we're not getting anything more for what we're paying for taxes. And by the way, in terms of Winnipeg tax bill is the most expensive in the country, and nobody in Winnipeg wants to talk about that because, like, oh, what you're gonna do? Well, I'll tell you what we're gonna do. We're gonna move to Santa del Quebec.

Terry Dimonte  33:59  
Well, I you know, it's funny, because I talk about Montrealers, ex Montrealers, that was carry a piece of Montreal with them. One of the things that I think it might be a nostalgia, and it could have been, because it was the start of my radio career. I always felt a special connection to Winnipeg. I always had a fondness for that city. I went back every summer, you know, spent time at Lake of the Woods with friends, and really looked forward to a Manitoba summer. And there was a charm to Winnipeg that I thought was pretty cool when I was in my 20s. And in the last five or six or seven years, when I've gone back, I slowly was kind of losing that I was, I thought to myself, the the charm of this place is going out of this place. And I again, I don't know if that's a nostalgia or whatever, but I also think it's reality. I think, like everywhere else, there's too many people, there's too much crime, there's, you know, there's not enough thought put in. To change. They're not, they're not progressively thinking about how to make things better. I don't know what it is, but the only reason I'll go back now is to see Don Percy, now that you're gone and there isn't a lot of reason for me to go back there.

Matt Cundill  35:18  
Yeah, I think about that too. Yeah.

Terry Dimonte  35:20  
The charm, yeah. The charm went away. The I don't know it again. It could be just me. And if you live in Winnipeg, you're probably yelling, fuck off. But, you know, that's, that's just my opinion.

Matt Cundill  35:32  
I don't know how anybody could say, Fuck off. Because I spent 19 years there. I watched it, you know, when I went there in 2006 I thought, okay, it's, it's on the upswing. Maybe it will get better. Yeah. And, you know, looks like things are happening. And I think Gary Dewar did a very good job as premier the country. I don't necessarily think, I think Sam Cates did a massive disservice for the city by letting the expansion roll all the way west. So you got all these suburban houses that stretch from about just a little past Shaftsbury, yeah, and goes all the way to the perimeter. And I'm like, to what end everybody now needs to get in the car to go to a Costco, by the way, does just put a Costco out on the west end, but there's no grocery store, and I have no idea. It feels to me as if a lot of there's a lot of people on the take in that town. And by on the take, I mean unions who manipulate politicians. So you can build another fire hall, so you can build another police station, so you can build another school, so you can build, build another, another, another, and they're just now getting around to the infill. Oh, maybe we should do some infill.

Terry Dimonte  36:38  
Yeah. Meanwhile, your tax bill goes up every year. Boy, I'm paying for that. We sound like a couple of guys on the porch, don't we? God damn government.

Matt Cundill  36:49  
Whoever thought the solution was to move to Quebec,

Terry Dimonte  36:51  
well, I listen. I you know what. It's you. You pursue joy, at least that's what I do. My wife and I are both from Quebec. We we had a, we had a real idealistic love affair with British Columbia that proved not to be, you know, it wasn't what we thought it was going to be. And when we looked, you know, when we started to say we got to get out of here, and we started to look across the country, and, you know, where would we go, you know, do we move to Peterborough? I don't think so. Do we want to go to Charles Wood? I don't think so. What about Saskatoon? No. How about Thunder Bay? No, we could go to, I don't know. Soyuz No. And it all came back to, why don't we go home? And, you know, I think a lot of people I don't know, I, you know, there's a lot of people, when I talked about this on the podcast after we moved back last year, a lot of people, you know, chimed in and said, I moved out in 88 and I'm never going back. And I moved out and I, you know, I put my flag in Calgary, and I'm never coming home, or I'm in Halifax, or I'm in San Francisco, wherever, lot of people have real, real visceral feelings about it. And a lot of people, you know, move and say, you know, it's a shit hole. I'm never going back there, whatever. But I don't know. A lot of people also said, I wish I could go home, because it's home. And when push came to shove, we thought, let's go home, and let's go to the country where it's quieter, and that was part of our thinking.

Matt Cundill  38:30  
I have a very cynical thing I like to say to people when they say, Well, why did you move back to Quebec? And I say, because it's the part of Canada that I can still recognize as Canada, yep, yep,

Terry Dimonte  38:44  
that's very, very true. Quebeckers are very what's the word I'm looking for? They are quite

Terry Dimonte  38:55  
protective of their history and their culture and their traditions. And there's something that appeals to me about that, maybe because I'm a Quebecer.

Matt Cundill  39:10  
Also I was raised kind of like, yeah, because we had, I mean, born and raised here, my friend Ted Calli had a sticker on the back of his car. I think I can't remember, was the 80s or in the 90s, but it always said, My Canada includes Quebec, yeah, and, you know, this is the part of Canada that I find is, you know, most reminiscent about the Canada that I grew up in.

Terry Dimonte  39:30  
Yeah, I and I've said this on all kinds of podcasts whenever we talk about Quebec, you know. And I know this from having lived in Manitoba, having lived in Alberta, having lived in BC, I tell everybody in Quebec, the farther west I went, the bigger separatist I became. There was no one who was allowed to shit on Quebec. You know, I became Quebec's biggest defender as I moved across the country. You know, I used to say to people, you can't piss and moan about it, unless you're from there. I can piss and moan about it because I'm from there. It's, it's, like I said on the podcast earlier this year, there's just something about it that stays with you. And, you know, other people said to me, Well, it's the same thing is true if you're from, you know, Burnaby, I guess. But there's, there's just, I think there's just something unique about being from Montreal and from the chapter in its history. You know, I was born in 1958 raised in the 60s and 70s, quiet revolution, you know, people running up the highway to Toronto. There's just a, you know, I just, I grew up at a time in the province that I think gets in your blood and and even if you move, because you have to move like my mom and dad did. My mom and dad went out in 1977 to Toronto and never came back, because they were kind of chased down the highway with, you know, the separatism and all of that stuff. And I think that you you know, the especially the people who moved because they had to. It was a whole community in Calgary that left in 95 when CP rail moved their head office to Calgary. There's a lot of those people that went because they had to go that, you know, took a piece of Montreal with them. I think, I don't know, I think, I think that happens more to ex Montrealers than it does to ex colonan. And remind Are you a colonite cologner?

Matt Cundill  41:39  
I What would you be? I'm reminded of Josh freed, who called that, what's he called? Called it, excuse me, Jehovah's Anglo, yeah, where in Quebec you're yelling and screaming about, you know, being English, and give us our rights. And that's and then you go to Calgary, and then you find yourself doing the reverse out there

Terry Dimonte  42:01  
exactly, yeah, yeah,

Matt Cundill  42:03  
yeah. This

Terry Dimonte  42:04  
is, this is an it's the same thing. Every year we do this thing. It's our Christmas broadcast. And we, we don't talk about Christmas, and we, this year we haven't talked about Christmas yet. We haven't talked we didn't talk about radio very much. But I guess it's because radio is farther and farther in the rear view mirror, isn't it?

Matt Cundill  42:22  
That's one of the things I'm sort of struggling with with this podcast, is that, you know, people telling radio stories about what they do every day are not very interesting because they're not doing a lot of interesting things. Yeah. And, you know, I got into that there was a there was a debate between, you know, Fred Jacobs and a guy named Dave beesing, and they both worked at Jacobs media at one point, and they were talking about podcasts versus radio, a little bit about some of the benefits. And the person, Dave beasing, who's now has a company called sound that brands, he said something that I thought was rather profound. And when was the last time you talked about a brand new radio show and said to someone, Hey, have you checked out this new show on this new station, or on this station, and it doesn't happen anymore?

Terry Dimonte  43:03  
Well, no, because I don't think it exists anymore, anywhere by design. You know, the companies that have bought these places, they're, they're not interested in that, you know, they, they're interested in keeping the lights on and spending as little money as they can.

Matt Cundill  43:21  
Yeah, yeah. Well, that's, you know, now it's sharing space with podcasting, yeah, and podcasting is sharing space with YouTube, and YouTube is now sharing space with Amazon. And I bought myself a smart TV, and now everyone is talking to each other on my television.

Terry Dimonte  43:37  
Yeah, I find it, you know, it's, it's hard to keep up with the I mean, I'm past the I'm past the place where I would ask somebody what time their podcast is on. I still get asked that, what time does your podcast Come on? So, you know, I've moved along with the technology, but some of it I can't keep up with. I got to admit, I I don't know why that happens. You know, do you remember? You know, I'm at the age where you would help your parents reset the clock on their VCR and and suddenly you become that generation where you you know you're like, what, how do I fix this on my phone? Who? How do I get this off my screen? I don't know what happens. I i try and stay awkward, and I try and stay up to date and I read, but I still find myself sometimes in that swamp of, Oh, Jesus, this is all new, yeah.

Matt Cundill  44:30  
So I just went through that, I think, by moving our televisions to Smart TV, yeah. So I went through that a little bit, and it was your wife who turned and looked at me and said, those two technologies are redundant. Yeah?

Terry Dimonte  44:45  
Well, yeah, Jess, Jess is definitely the IT department in our house, that's for sure.

Matt Cundill  44:50  
I am finding myself using chat GBT to solve a lot of technical problems. Now, it's not always good, but it did manage to go and solve a problem. Problem that the bell person, he there was some poor installation here. Yeah, he didn't do it right, but chat GPT walked me through it and helped me fix the fix the network issue in my house.

Terry Dimonte  45:10  
It's interesting. Hey, what's what's coming? What's what, what seems to be on the way you are you going to need a bell guy to come if chat GPT can do it.

Matt Cundill  45:20  
So I just wrote about this in my latest newsletter called The sounding off. It's just called sounding off, and you can read it now. It's sounding off, dot news. But, you know, I wrote that about customer experience, and you know, customer service is going to make a comeback. And, you know, there was this podcast I was listening to. I was actually editing the podcast, and most of the time I'm not really paying attention to, you know, the content of it, but this one hat, I was just intrigued. So Andrew sigwart is the CEO of the tourism industry association of Ontario. He's interviewing somebody who he's interviewing Chris Biggs, who teaches hospitality at Tmu, the place that's formerly known as Ryerson. Anyhow, they're going on about how there's this big vacuum, and has been since the pandemic, over customer service, and the people who work in the industry, who who will work with you, and, you know, pour over, you know, make it a good experience for you, whether that's at a hotel, whether that's, you know, at a restaurant, and how the last few years, you know, they had Doug Ford puts in a tuition freeze, then they sort of catered international students, the international students come in and, you know, there's sort of this vacuum for the for the hospitality industry that is now it the tides beginning to turn, and people are discovering that you can have a career in this and do very well at it. And businesses are learning that if you pay the right people to do this, your business will flourish ahead of the other businesses that may be pushed into AI or pushed into the wrong areas and and anyway, this is the future is going to be customer service, one on one, and personalization that is not necessarily has anything to do with AI.

Terry Dimonte  47:05  
I hope you're right about that. I had a conversation this past week with my financial guy, and he was talking about the effects of AI that are coming in 26 and 27 and we were at a restaurant, and he was saying, you know, a lot of restaurants are going to revert to AI in terms of reservations and some even service. And we talked about the particular restaurant that I was at that day, that I met him at, that I'd never been to. There were two people at a desk when I walked in that welcomed me, brought me to the table, and that that right away, that sets me, that that sets me, not sets me off, but it makes me feel good. I feel like, okay, this, this place cares about their customers. And I said, if, if I had gone to is one of the things that I hate about fast food. Now I do not like going into a place and punching the order in on the board and then standing in line like I'm at a cafeteria with a sign that says, Now, preparing order 327, I'm not interested in any of that. I used to like the fast food places when they had people at the caches who talked to you, who took your order and put it in a bag and gave it to you, and you were gone. Now, I find fast food is slow food. It's, you know, by and large, industrialized garbage. You know, in a pinch, when you're on the highway, that that works. But I'm not, I'm not interested in a robot waiter and an AI recording answering the phone or welcoming me to a restaurant. Why? Why would I go? Is that a generational thing? Are, you know, are the the kids that are ordering Uber Eats completely happy with, you know, pre recorded people answering the phone, automatic computer menus. You know,

Matt Cundill  49:04  
I'm sorry, are you talking about food and lunch, or are you talking about the midday show at the local radio station? Well, it sounds the same.

Terry Dimonte  49:11  
Yeah, it's kind of like both. I guess it's both the it's both cut from the same cloth. I agree 100% with you, like I don't. I saw a thing online the other day where a guy who was a consultant explained the story of the doorman at a hotel where a consulting firm comes into the hotel and says, Listen, I can save you. Let's, let's save you $60,000 by eliminating the doorman. Will put in an automatic door that will open and close, and that will only cost you $30,000 to install, and then, you know, your bottom line will go up. And what happens to those hotels is they lose the human touch. So they can't control the door. They can't control who comes in and out. They don't have a doorman that represents the brand that's. Able to tell people where to go, to keep people out of the hotel who don't belong in the hotel, and the hotel starts to deteriorate. So it's a it's a short term solution for the bottom line, and I think that's happened in a lot of businesses. Radio included, you know, it's a short term solution that's chasing people away from the product, and I think especially in the service industry, that I'm not interested in going to a place where the you know, you have to download the menu on your phone and then a robot is going to bring you your food. I'm not interested in that experience. That's not a restaurant experience to me, that's, that's the human equivalent to refilling at a gas station.

Matt Cundill  50:47  
And most of the times that you and I have gone out in Winnipeg, we go to highs, yeah, we will talk about Andrew who served us, or we will talk about Glenn who brought us the wine. The other night, we went to monkland Tavern. We talked about Josh who cooked the food, and we talked about Sabrina, who brought the food, right?

Terry Dimonte  51:03  
Yeah, and that those are the people that leave you with that. They're the people that make up the experience. That's what you talk about on the way home. Oh my god, the atmosphere was so good. The fish was the best I ever eat. I'd ever had the you know, the the service was unbelievable, the people were so nice. That whole thing creates the experience. You know, it's the mistake that you and I talk about all the time in radio. You know, there's, for many years, people thought it was just the records that created the experience. It isn't. It's, you know, it's the same thing with, you know, I get it AI is going to replace some jobs that you don't need a person for. But I, you know, there, I think there are some jobs where you're always going to need people. This goes all the way back to your initial point of, yeah, it's, you know, you you can, you can get into the hospitality business and and, make a good living, and still, you know, still require people,

Matt Cundill  52:04  
I hope so, because I got three boys who are doing that. There you go. I know, actually, when I was listening to that podcast, and I'll put it in the show notes of this episode for those who want to check it out. But there's Jacob. He works at highs in Winnipeg, and Andrew is working for the candidates Corporation in Winnipeg. There you go. And Daniel's moving to Calgary to work in hospitality. Daniel Cundill, if anybody is looking to hire anybody in the hospitality industry, Daniel's your guy. His resume is in the show notes of this episode.

Terry Dimonte  52:33  
Okay, good. Thanks, dad.

Matt Cundill  52:37  
That's great. You hear that Calgary looking for someone good. He's your guy.

Terry Dimonte  52:42  
Well, there's a there's a town that really counts on, on hospitality. If you've ever been to stampede, you know what I'm talking about?

Matt Cundill  52:51  
Well, mountains, for instance, skiing, Yeah, boy, there's so much that goes on in Calgary. You know, I went to Calgary twice this year.

Terry Dimonte  52:57  
Yeah, it's great. Yeah, I haven't been in a couple of years. I my wife and I Jess and I, our favorite spot in the country, in terms of hotels, is the Bamp Springs Hotel. And we used to, we used to pick a weekend between Christmas and, like, after Remembrance Day and before the Christmas holiday season. They call it shoulder season. It gets a little quiet. And I just, I love that property, and I love Banff. And what I love Alberta, it's, if you've never been you got to go. But a lot of Alberta's economy, yeah, yeah, oil, gas, I get it, but a lot of it is also hospitality.

Matt Cundill  53:37  
You make it seem like you just sort of pass through Calgary. You live there for nearly five years, 2008 to 2012 Yeah,

Terry Dimonte  53:45  
yeah, yeah, I did, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had a really, really nice experience in Calgary. I, you know, it was just when radio, I just at the peak of radios powers in 2007 I was I was scooped up, I was scouted and offered a deal that I absolutely could not refuse, and and then, you know, 10 years later, you know, those, those kind of deals that I signed in my at the end of my radio career, those, Those are laughable now those, those wouldn't happen anymore. I know

Matt Cundill  54:23  
people are wondering, why aren't they talking about Christmas, but we played a little Christmas music in the beginning and in between for the mid roll and stuff like that. Yeah. But the truth is that Terry and I live in the same town, and we spend Christmas together now, so we don't necessarily need to share it with the audience anymore. We can just do a podcast.

Terry Dimonte  54:38  
Well, I should, I should mention that you're listening to this on Christmas Day. Matt and his wife were with me and my wife last night, and we had a lovely Christmas Eve

Matt Cundill  54:50  
together, and all things, they happened and they worked out. Jacob is joined us.

Terry Dimonte  54:56  
I sure hope so. I love that. I love your boys. You know that I'm really. Looking forward to seeing him, and I'm sorry that you know Andrew and Daniel are not able to attend, but seeing Jake will make up for it.

Matt Cundill  55:08  
Good, excellent. Terry, yes. Thoughts on 2026 what are some of the early plans you've got for any travel, any

Terry Dimonte  55:18  
sweeps, we will be on the beach in February, and we will be in the Tuscan hills in October. Those are the two things that are earmarked for 2026 along with, you know, car rides and you know, short distance trips. My wife and I are having ongoing discussions about elbows up. I miss Vermont. We haven't been to the states for a couple of years now. One of the reasons I'm glad we moved back east is because I love Vermont. And, you know, I would love to get to Palm Springs, etc. One of the things that that's we have to work around is my wife is, I'm retired. My wife is not. She is, you know, she's got a very busy job that she works from home, and, you know, she can work remotely. But we, we have to be careful with how we schedule our travel so it doesn't interfere with her work. So we kind of take it month to month, but the two big ones on the docket for next year are Italy in the Dominican and

Matt Cundill  56:29  
if you'd like to know more about the mental health of the people on this podcast, all you have to do is follow Manchester United and the Buffalo Bills poor Jess, yeah, I know

Terry Dimonte  56:40  
she talks about the joy of of you know, having seen Manchester United in their heyday, but boy, it's been tough the last 10 years to be a man you fan, that's for sure. Did you go this year to a game last year? We went this time last year we were in England for four. Paul McCartney shows, yes, we did all four, two in Manchester, two in London and and we squeezed in a game

Matt Cundill  57:06  
at Old Trafford. And you saw Paul McCartney to November coming through here in Montreal as well Hamilton. I think yes, we did.

Terry Dimonte  57:12  
Yeah, we anybody who knows my story knows I married the world's biggest Paul McCartney fan who's now seen him 4045, 4040 4544

Matt Cundill  57:23  
4445 Yeah, somewhere in there. Okay,

Terry Dimonte  57:26  
somewhere in there. Might Yeah, might be 47 No. But anyway, yes, when Paul tours, we tour,

Matt Cundill  57:34  
I love that. Yeah. Terry, Merry Christmas to you, and thanks for doing this again this year. 10th time you.

Terry Dimonte  57:40  
Yeah, wow. A 10th Anniversary. I, I don't know, every year I say to you, I think we were boring. And every year you say to me, no, at least 10 people downloaded the podcast.

Matt Cundill  57:52  
It's, you know, like in radio, when you turn the transmitter on, you get three share. Yeah. In podcasting, if you release an episode, you should get nine downloads.

Terry Dimonte  58:01  
Well we know we can count on Eli, thanks. Eli, thanks. Eli, Hey, Merry Christmas. Everybody. Merry Christmas. All the best in 2026 you.