Flashback

With his rich baritone voice and engaging personality, Clive Braham seemed born for radio the night he took to the airwaves at CHRY-FM (now VIBE105), armed with a new three-hour music and chat show curated for members of Toronto’s Caribbean community. The year was 1999, and Braham says many of the volunteers at York’s campus radio station shared a common purpose. “Everyone there had a passion to tell the truth,” he recalls. “We all believed there was a story to be told, and that we’d be the ones to tell it.” 

You Got Soul delved into themes of Black identity and belonging. Listeners could call in and add to the conversation, which is what made it engaging. “It covered every genre and gave people a chance to discuss the issue of the day.” The weekly program ran until 2012, by which time Braham had joined York full time as a member of staff.

Today, after advancing through the ranks, he is frontline manager of security operations at Glendon College where, at age 59, he recently returned to the classroom as a mature student to complete the degree he forfeited more than 20 years ago, when radio proved all-consuming. “The opportunity,” he says, “is there. I want to take advantage of that.” ■