Other possible names (some clearly tongue-in-cheek) included "State-of the-Arts in Canada", "Awesometown", "Afternoon Delight", "Smells like Canada", "Full Duplex Repeater", "Skybox Three" (the room in Toronto's Rogers Centre where much of the show was created), "Ghomer's Pile", or one even closer to Jian Ghomeshi, the show host of Iranian descent, "Royal Canadian Air Farsi".

[13][14] The following night, opening for Willie Nelson at Toronto's Massey Hall, Thornton said mid-set he liked Canadians but not Ghomeshi, which was greeted with boos and catcalls.

[16] Ghomeshi and comedian Alan Park made a mock follow-up interview promoting the 2009 Air Farce Live television special.

The sketch has Ghomeshi asking Thornton (Alan Park) about his plans for New Years, leading to the actor responding similar answers to the April interview.

[18] After his departure, the program was hosted by a rotating series of guest hosts, including existing CBC staffers such as Brent Bambury, Piya Chattopadhyay, Tom Power, Allan Hawco and Talia Schlanger, and outside figures such as Wab Kinew,[19] Rachel Giese, Damian Abraham, Candy Palmater, Shad, Daniel Richler, and Sean Rameswaram.

[20] During the transition process, the CBC faced controversy when it announced that it intended to remove all Ghomeshi-hosted segments of the program from its online archive of previously-broadcast content.

[22] Concurrently with Shad's debut as host, the program also unveiled new theme music composed by Canadian musician Bahamas.

Shad was replaced with Tom Power in August 2016, as the program's ratings had declined significantly over the period when he hosted.

Concurrently with Power taking over the host's chair, the show also debuted another new theme song, composed and performed by Ewan and Shamus Currie of The Sheepdogs through their side project BROS. Other regular contributors to the show included CBC Music's Raina Douris and Odario Williams, who appeared as part of a weekly segment devoted to new album releases, and Jael Richardson as a book reviewer.

Filmed footage of interviews and live musical performances from the radio program airs on CBC Television and YouTube.

The show was effectively relaunched in early May 2015 with Shad taking a greater role in the PPI version of the series.