52 Facts About Allan Slaight

John Allan Slaight was a Canadian rock and roll radio pioneer, media mogul, and philanthropist.

Allan Slaight's career began as an amateur magician before moving to radio.

Allan Slaight was the founder of Slaight Communications, and the president and CEO of Standard Broadcasting Corporation Limited, which was Canada's largest privately owned a multimedia company.

Allan Slaight was an active philanthropist and founder of the Slaight Family Foundation.

John Allan Slaight was born in Galt, Ontario, Canada to Florence Eileen Wright and John Edgar Slaight.

Allan Slaight's father was a newspaperman who worked for the Galt Evening Reporter.

Allan Slaight's family moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan when their father, Jack, bought the Moose Jaw Times-Herald in 1945.

Jack Slaight was the eventual co-owner of Moose Jaw radio station CHAB-AM, one of Canada's first radio stations.

Allan Slaight's traveling magic show would often see him spend 14 hours away from home visiting small towns to perform for $10.

Allan Slaight's show may have been inspired from his early days in the 1940s performing for his grandfather's staff at a local bank in Galt for $2, or his regular performances at conventions and at the Rotary Club in Moose Jaw.

Allan Slaight toyed with the idea of performing on a permanent basis, and indicated that he would have done so, had it been profitable.

Allan Slaight is the author of several magic titles including Stewart James in Print: The First Fifty Years, The James File, and Essential Stewart James.

Allan Slaight co-hosted an annual magicians conference, 31 Faces North, with performing arts organization Magicana every summer.

Allan Slaight began his broadcasting career in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in 1948 at age 17 as an on-air news reporter and announcer for his father's station CHAB.

Allan Slaight arrived at the University of Saskatchewan in autumn 1949 to uphold a bargain he made with his father.

In exchange for working one year at CHAB, Allan Slaight was required to attend university.

Allan Slaight dropped out of his studies at the University of Saskatchewan after his first year and balanced his burgeoning broadcasting career with his traveling magic show.

Unable to find a job in radio, Allan Slaight sold shoes at the Eaton's Department store before finally joining radio station CFRN that same year as a news reporter before leaving to join CJCA in 1952.

In 1954 Allan Slaight joined Edmonton-based radio station CHED-AM as the station's News Director.

Two years later in 1956, Allan Slaight was appointed Merchandising Director.

In early 1958, Allan Slaight was hired as program and promotions manager for the Toronto-based CHUM radio station.

Allan Slaight was successful in instituting and shepherding CHUM towards a new format and CHUM dethroned Toronto's top radio station CKEY.

Allan Slaight insisted that while CHUM would still focus on rock and roll, the station would play music during the day that would appeal to housewives and drivers who found number one station CFRB too bland.

Responsible for all programming and operations of CHUM-AM and its sister station CHUM-FM, Allan Slaight remained with CHUM-1050 Ltd until 1966 when he and his family left the country for England.

Allan Slaight returned to Toronto in 1967 with a renewed passion to own his own radio station.

Allan Slaight had put a second mortgage on his house and sought out investment partners including Gordon Lightfoot, by guaranteeing them a generous return on investment should they back him.

On July 13,1972, Allan Slaight was granted permission by Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to acquire 80 per cent holdings of Montreal-based station CFOX-AM.

The merger resulted in Allan Slaight acquiring other cable media systems in Mississauga, Barrie, Orillia, and Sarnia-based radio station CHOK, while retaining CFGM Broadcasting Ltd.

But, the following day, Allan Slaight was pleased to find out he and the board of directors had been given permission to acquire the fledgling and debt-ridden Global Television Network that had been founded by Al Bruner.

At the age of 42, Allan Slaight was tasked with restructuring Global out of the red.

Allan Slaight incorporated a number of imports and reruns from the US.

In 1974, Allan Slaight authorized a rights offering of IWC's shares where proceeds would be used to finance a portion of Global Communications Ltd.

In 1978, Allan Slaight made a bid for all the common shares outside of Radio IWC Ltd.

Under the new agreement, Allan Slaight acquired another 42 per cent, and purchased CFGM Broadcasting Ltd.

Allan Slaight renamed Radio IWC Ltd to Slaight Communications Inc the following year.

In 1976 Allan Slaight applied for a CFGM-AM renewal license and asked the CRTC to consider an FM license for a sister station.

Allan Slaight proposed that the new station would offer an ombudsman service for listeners and include other services such as consumer reports.

In 1982, Allan Slaight bought a controlling interest in Urban Outdoors, the second-largest outdoor advertising business in Canada.

Allan Slaight specialized in backlit outdoor advertising in Canada's 20 largest markets.

Allan Slaight nonetheless saw the endeavor as an exercise to expose waste at the CBC.

In July 1985, Allan Slaight acquired Conrad Black and Montegu Black's Hollinger Argus Ltd.

Allan Slaight revitalized CFRB by computerizing CFRB's newsroom, introducing phone-in shows, a supper-hour newscast, and more contemporary music that deviated from the older standards, eventually transforming CFRB into an all-talk format.

Allan Slaight himself returned to his radio roots and assumed responsibilities of CFRB's programming when his hired man, Peter Shurman, resigned.

The station has been in the top rankings since that time and Allan Slaight paid the $175 million debt off in nine years.

Allan Slaight summed up his approach to business after the acquisition:.

In that same year, Allan Slaight sold CJOH-TV, an affiliate of CTV so he could focus on expanding his radio holdings for Standard Broadcasting.

Allan Slaight accepted, and Baton surrendered its awarded license to the CRTC, having used the license acquisition as a bartering chip against Allan Slaight.

In 2007, Allan Slaight authorized the sale of Standard Radio Inc to Astral Media Inc in a $1.08 billion deal.

The negotiation saw Allan Slaight taking one-fifth of the purchase price of Astral stock, giving Allan Slaight a non-voting stake in the company of 8.7 per cent.

Allan Slaight prevailed and reluctantly bought out Bitove, whose passion for the Raptors was evident but declined the offer.

On November 15,1996, Allan Slaight gained 79 per cent control of the Raptors.

Allan Slaight has a long history of philanthropic activities in a number of health and arts-related realms.