Standard Broadcast Sales (SBS)

A history of the rep company from 1960 until its termination in 1992

Radio Station CFRB Toronto, acquired by the Argus Corporation in 1946 from Rogers Radio, was the flagship radio station around which Standard Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) later developed its highly successful broadcasting enterprise. W.C. (Winks) Cran, SBC’s first President, and later, H.T. (Mac) McCurdy, expanded the Corporation in the years between 1960 and 1980 to include, among other broadcast related properties, ownership of CKFM Toronto; CJAD and CJFM Montreal; CJOH-TV in Ottawa and CKTB St. Catherines.

In 1961 Waldo Holden, who had enjoyed a successful sales career with CKRC Winnipeg, and who was then in charge of sales for CFRB/CKFM Toronto, and CJAD/CJFM Montreal, was authorized to create a national sales representation company to solicit advertising for these four Standard owned stations – and this marked the beginning of the rep company known as Standard Broadcast Sales (SBS).

Waldo Holden’s concept for the newly created SBS was that the company, in its planned expansion program, would only represent stations in the major cities across Canada. He appointed Arnold Stinson as the Sales Manager of SBS Toronto, and Bill Steockle as Manager of SBS Montreal. In 1963, the first non-owned stations to join SBS were CJOB and CJOB-FM, Winnipeg, owned by Western Broadcasting (WBC). It was rumoured in the early 1960’s that Frank Griffiths, the owner of WBC, might sell his radio broadcasting holdings to SBC, but that didn’t happen.

Before he retired in 1970, Waldo Holden continued to pursue his goal of adding large market stations to the SBS list, but as in all well laid plans, changes evolved. At the request of Roy Thompson (not yet Lord Thompson) SBS accepted the sales representation of Roy’s Northern Group which included North Bay. And for a time SBS represented a group of radio stations in Quebec, including CKCH Hull which was sold by SBS in a combination French/English air time package with CKOY Ottawa.

Dick Moody joined SBS in 1964. Larry Heisey served for several years as V.P. before Dick became President of SBS in 1970. In 1978 he was appointed to the SBC Board of Directors. Dick helped reach Waldo Holden’s objective of representing radio stations from coast-to-coast in Canada, and he was instrumental in SBC’s growth in Great Britain, where the Corporation held equities in 15 UK radio stations including Capital Radio in London, chaired by film actor Dickie Attenborough.

During his broadcast sales career, Dick served on the Board of Directors of: the Radio Advertising Bureau; the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement; Capital Radio (London); Broadcast Marketing Services (London); and he also served for five years as President of the Broadcast Reps Association.

SBS, and its UK sales company Broadcast Marketing Services headed by Terry Bate, had offices in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, London, England, and for a brief time in Milan, Italy. And the Corporation, through SBS initiatives, briefly considered a joint-venture broadcasting operation in China, but nothing came of it.

Standard Broadcasting Corporation was acquired by Alan Slaight in 1985 and SBC expanded and prospered under his, and Gary Slaight’s direction. In 1992, SBS was merged into the newly created Canadian Broadcast Sales (CBS) headed by Pat Grierson. Later, SBC withdrew its radio stations from CBS representation and created its own in-house sales company which was managed by Bill Herz.

Astral Communications acquired the Standard radio stations from Alan Slaight in 2007.

Written by Dick Moody – February, 2009

Some of the Reps who worked with SBS over the years (With apologies for oversights):

Some of the Radio Stations Represented by SBS (With apologies for oversights):