Are you ready for the new and improved “woke” Dean Blundell?

If you would like a taste, tune into Newstalk 1010 this Thursday and Friday, as the controversial deejay fills in on The Jim Richards Show.

It’s his first appearance on Toronto airwaves in almost two years and Blundell, 45, published a lengthy post on his website about his past; how he has undergone therapy and stopped drinking to get the point where he says he is now healthy and “hungry” to get back on radio.

“It was really important to me that I not be selfish about the things that I’ve learned and I needed to be able to share that with people,” he says in the post. “It was really important to talk to people that were in the position that I was in, where it was pretty dark a couple of years ago, and to humanize mental health and failure.

“You know, in radio and especially in media, we’re taught to shut up and not talk about what went wrong, because your currency is your mental well-being. I wasn’t doing great … I didn’t know how to deal with it, and I got a lot of help from a lot of good people.”

In an interview, Blundell admits he’s working his way back up to the perch he enjoyed for over a decade as a popular morning show host on The Edge.

During that 13-year run, Blundell faced numerous complaints at the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council about offensive content, which he often chalked up to poor attempts at humour. In 2014, he was indefinitely suspended for discussing a sexual assault case in which his co-host was on the jury, making homophobic comments and potentially causing a mistrial in the case.

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Despite the controversies, he was picked up as the host of Sportsnet The Fan 590 in 2015 and hosted the morning show there until February 2017 when he was let go.

Since then, Blundell says he has been getting help, blogging, creating content for his site and currently hosts two podcasts: one for his site and a sports-related one with former Sportsnet broadcaster Daren Millard. He says he has been entertaining radio offers but wasn’t in the right headspace.

He also says he has no idea how his new outlook will manifest on the air.

What do you think?

“I’m talking to a few radio companies right now, but it’s probably not great business to go in there and go, ‘Hey, I have no idea what is going to happen,’ but I know that I’m a much happier guy, and I’m still full of piss and vinegar, but it’s directed at the right things. It’s not divisive and it’s inclusive,” he says.

“For the past couple of years, I’ve had to be accountable for the words that I’ve spoke and I’ve had to be accountable through the blog, and whether that is attractive to people or not, I really don’t give a s--t. I’m doing content I’m being honest about, what I’m going through on a daily basis … I’m in a great frame of mind and I’m about as hungry as I’ve ever been, far more hungry than when I started, but I’m a lot smarter and I’m a lot more aware now.”

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Blundell says he knows he won’t convince everyone and he doesn’t really care.

This fill-in gig is just a temporary one, but radio executives in this town seem to believe he’s worth taking another chance on, likely with the hope that some of his old audience will follow him wherever her goes.

This may also be just the beginning as Blundell is teasing that he has a big announcement coming soon.