Welcome with Karim Kanji

Prior to joining ESPN, Karim was an anchor and reporter on Canada’s leading sports network (TSN) since 2011. He hosted TSN’s news and information show SportsCentre and covered a variety of major sporting events including the 2013 and 2014 IIHF World Junior Championships and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Karim also hosted TSN’s coverage of NCAA March Madness, the 2016 FIBA Americas, and TSN’s live coverage of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games and Rio 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

A native of Vancouver, Karim graduated from Simon Fraser University where he majored in Communications and received a broadcast journalism degree from the British Columbia Institute of Technology. NOTE: PODCAST BEGINS AFTER A MINUTE OF SILENCE.

Any Night Of The Week – A DIY History of Toronto Music 1957-2001 just might be one of the most important books about the Toronto live music scene ever written.

In this episode Karim Kanji speaks with author, musician and co-founder of Wavelength Music, Jonny Dovercourt.

Anuk Karunaratne is the Executive Vice President of Business Operations for the Toronto Blue Jays. Before the start of the 2021 regular season we sat down for a look back at the 2020 season as well as a look forward to the 2021 season and beyond.

Born in Toronto in 1951, Greg Godovitz has been an active member of the Canadian music industry since 1964. The year 2021 marks his 57th anniversary as a musician.

His recorded works with Toronto based group Fludd produced eight top ten hits including the SOCAN Hall Of Fame inductees Cousin Mary, Brother and Me and Turned 21 which have reached the amazing milestone of over 100,000 airplays.

Greg went on to enjoy national success with Toronto power trio Goddo, recording and producing eleven albums and touring the country extensively since 1975.

Justine Giles is a folk singer songwriter based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Originally from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada Justine was the 2020 Jim Beam Talent Search National Finalist, Calgary Region Winner.

Toronto-based Bad Breed started out as a hard-edged combination of punk rock and 60s R&B. Inspired by the sounds of Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Betty Davis and Led Zeppelin, the muscular funk, lightning-sharp guitar riffs and soulful songs of love and despair from their latest album are a testament to the transformative and ferocious power of love.

Danny Miles is best known as the drummer of Juno Award-winning alternative band July Talk. Danny is also drummer and co-producer of the Alternative Hip Hop group Tongue Helmet and an avid bird photographer.

Zulekha Nathoo is an award-winning Canadian multimedia journalist currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. After almost two full decades with CBC she is currently a contributor for BBC Worklife.

In this episode we talk about her career, sacrificing for her career, living in the US as a Canadian, her past ball hockey career, her short stint as a world class air guitarist, and what it's like to raise a young mixed race child with her husband.

Dubbed “Hip Hops kid sister”, Keysha Freshh blends everything you love about the 90’s with everything you appreciate about Hip Hop. Born in Toronto, Keysha found a love for hip hop spending summers in NYC. She was exposed to the culture at an early age, listening to mixtapes her cousins would have. Keysha had her first song published when she was 5 years old, the song was titled “Summers coming” and she has been performing ever since. Keysha performed her first written rap, at the age of 12 while she was a member of the Toronto Children Concert Choir.

After expressing her desire to record music to hit maker and super-producer T-Miuns (credits: Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj) he referred Keysha to a local studio and she recorded her first song “Pardon my swag”. In 2009, Keysha then went on to record her very first official single “Hollywood Fresh”, which received rave reviews and radio play across North America. Keysha was the youngest female Hip Hop artist to have 3 songs in rotation on 93.5FM (then Flow 93.5) which, at the time was Canadas leading urban radio station. The remix to “Hollywood Freshh” soon followed featuring Gunna (who also produced the beat) and Hip Hop artist MIMS (This is why I’m hot). MIMS along with Hip Hop legend Doug E Fresh also appear in the music video for “Hollywood Fresh”.

Hotel Isabella was built in the 1890s in Toronto. During it’s first heyday it was a fancy hotel that people went to for weddings and anniversaries. In the 1970s and 80s it was known as a jazz bar. In the 1980s and 90s Gregg’s band, International Boundaries, played the basement bar of Hotel Isabella, Under The Izzy. There was also a main floor venue called Cameo Lounge. Besides Gregg, the Hotel Isabella played host to acts such as Big Sugar, Burton Cummings, Molly Johnson, Jeff Healey and Dan Aykroyd.

This episode begins with a talk about the new app, Clubhouse and the Super Bowl halftime show starring The Weeknd.