Toronto shock jock Dean Blundell’s show axed because of station format change, not homophobic remarks

Corus Entertainment has officially cut shock jock Dean Blundell weeks after he was suspended for homophobic banter on his show on Toronto's 102.1 the Edge.

But the company's announcement was a bit mealy-mouthed. Instead of saying Blundell was being dumped because of the comments, a statement on the Edge's web site by Corus Radio Toronto general manager Dave Farough said the station was taking a "new direction" with a more music-based format.

Probably left unstated was that Blundell, who's kept the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council busy for years investigating numerous complaints, finally had become more trouble than he was worth.

Last summer, the station axed Blundell's longtime sidekick, Todd Sahpiro, a few weeks after the industry self-regulating watchdog sanctioned the show over references to female protesters at a Remembrance Day event as "bitches" and "skanks," according to Postmedia News.

Blundell was taken off the air in December after he and producer Derek Welsman, a regular guest on the show, discussed the trial of a gay man accused of sexually assaulting men in a Toronto bathhouse.

[ Related: Dean Blundell Show cancelled after 13 years on Toronto airwaves ]

Welsman had served on the jury that convicted Joshua Dowholis of sexual assault and unlawful confinement last Sept. 27, the National Post reported.

Welsman had appeared on Blundell's show during the trial and made oblique references to the case. But after the verdict he spoke about his experiences as a juror – which is illegal in Canada. He and Blundell also joked about the circumstances of the sexual assaults and that the accused might welcome the a stay in prison.

"Five years of nothing but love," Blundell quipped, according to Post columnist Christie Blatchford. "Pure bliss."

Shock jocks, by definition, are supposed to be outrageous and edgy. Going over the line is part of their shtick. Complaints to the authorities can be good for ratings.

Howard Stern, the most famous shock jock of them all, built a huge audience by regularly running afoul of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for such things as suggesting he masturbated to a picture of Aunt Jemima on a pancake-mix box and making lewd remarks about high school girls fleeing the Columbine massacre.

The broadcaster that syndicated his show finally turfed him in 2004 over sexually explicit and racist remarks that earned them yet another hefty fine. But Stern quickly landed a lucrative deal for his own satellite radio channel and has never looked back.

Stern's longtime rival, Don Imus, was fired in 2007 by CBS after making racist comments on his show about black female basketball players.

But Imus, too, landed on his feet. The man in the oversized cowboy hat still broadcasts his syndicated morning show on stations across the U.S. and is a regular on the Fox Business Network.

Then there's Michael Savage, who according to Esquire Magazine makes Rush Limbaugh look like a choirboy.

MSNBC fired Savage in 2003 for an exchange with a caller that started out about travel horror stories, then turned strangely homophobic.

No matter, Savage was at it again in 2008, making ignorant statements suggesting on his syndicated radio show almost all autistic children were simply brats acting out, ABC News reported.

[ Related: Australian DJs apologize after world vilifies them for death of Kate Middleton’s nurse ]

Of course, shock jockery can have consequences. Back in 2002, U.S. jocks Opie and Anthony were fired from their New York-based broadcaster for a contest for the most outrageous public sex acts in which two people were arrested for having sex in a church, according to People Magazine. It was actually the second time they'd been canned, apparently. Four years earlier they were fired from a Boston station for an April Fool's Day hoax announcing the city's mayor had died in a car crash.

And then, of course, there was the deadly prank by Australian jocks Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who fooled a nurse at the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to her son into thinking they were the Queen and Prince Charles.

Jacintha Saldanha naively set the call to the duchess's nurse, who then gave the radio hosts private information about her condition.

Saldanha committed suicide, leaving notes blaming the shock jocks and hospital administrators.

Greig and Christian were taken off the air and forced to move into a "safe house," after receiving death threats, the Huffington Post reported at the time. Their show was promptly cancelled.