Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  PARANG MUSIC HERALDS THE BOXING DAY RETURN OF JAI! By Stephen Weir:  On December 26 Jai Ojah-Maharaj ( pictured above ) will be back. His return comes just in time to bring Parang music back to the airwaves. The godfather of Soca and Parang on Toronto radio will soon be heard on CHIN radio, the station where it all began for him over 30 years ago!  His  Caribbean Connection  Saturday night show will be a huge Boxing Day present for FM listeners from Toronto to Buffalo and beyond. “ I have been talking to Lenny Lombardo (the owner of CHIN radio) on and off for quite sometime now,” said Jai yesterday. “ Things began to heat up about three weeks ago, when we learned the Saturday night  South Asian Show  was giving up its weekly time slot.  They have had that (time slot) since I left CHIN in 2011 (to join the just launched G-98.7), and of course I want it back!” “ Because of the Pandemic the community is missing the joy of Parang,” he continued. “So...

Front Page News: CTV Face of Toronto Nathan Downer’s TV Career Takes An Upward Turn He is one of the good guys and he is a good friend of the carnival. Long time CP-24 stalwart Nathan Downer has been bumped up to the big times and is now delivering the news to a much much bigger Toronto TV audience on a much bigger screen! CTV News Toronto (CFTO) announced that as of yesterday Nathan Downer has taken over from veteran announcer Ken Shaw as the co-anchor of CTV NEWS AT NOON alongside veteran newsy Michelle Dubé. Downer will also co-anchor CTV NEWS AT SIX beginning in early January when Shaw retires. “I’m very excited to join the anchor desk of Canada’s most-watched local newscast, to be part of this incredible team, and to work alongside an exceptional journalist in Michelle Dubé,” said Downer. “I’m tremendously honoured to uphold Ken Shaw’s legacy of guiding Torontonians through the biggest events unfolding in our wonderful city.” For news watchers, the move from channel 24 down the...

Jai Ojha-Maharaj is back playing sweet Caribbean music to the World! B y Stephen Weir The Dean of Soca Music on the Toronto airwaves is back! Two weeks ago Sunday morning radio host JaiOjah-Maharaj once again got behind the microphone and started playing the sweet sounds of Soca and Calypso Music. The Caribbean Connection Radio Show with Jai is not being heard on Toronto’s CHIN radio station, his home for 30-years, but on the MyCarribeanRadio -- the Trinidadian Super Soca online radio station. “The actual show is originating out of a private studio in Toronto’s west-end” Ojah told me in a recent phone interview. “We are going to video stream at a later date, so in the short-term it will be just radio. To hear me listeners (anywhere in the world) must log on towww.mycaribbeanradio.com Sundays 10am to 2 pm beginning Sunday.” Jai Ojha-Haharaj    was the host and producer of the original Caribbean Connection Radio Show that for 30 years was th...

Ed Hawk and Paradise Nicole Hendrickson arrive for interview -- sweirsweir photo Oprah Winfrey’s day in Paradise and other gigs for Toronto's Paradise Nicole Hendrickson By Stephen Weir Oprah Winfrey never looked so good!    It was “no biggie” for Toronto broadcaster, model, actress and Official Goodwill Ambassador for St Vincent and the Grenadines, Paradise Nicole Hendrickson to portray the Queen of All Media in a TV movie – it is all in a day’s work! “ Really it was just another gig, but it was fun,” explained Paradise Nicole Hendrickson. “ I do quite a bit of acting and modelling whether it be here in Toronto or where ever I am needed. I played Tasma Brighthaupt the wife of Anna Nicole Smith’s bodyguard in one episode of the Final 24 TV series. Then I was doing a fashion shoot!” Paradise   Although her bag is always packed and ready to roll, these days the former beauty queen is busy busy as the executive producer and host of Kiss of Paradise, a po...