John Allan Slaight CM (July 19, 1931 – September 19, 2021) was a Canadian rock and roll radio pioneer, media mogul, and philanthropist.
He 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.
[4] A magician since his youth, Slaight's interest in magic started at age eight, after seeing Johnny Giordmaine's performance at the Toyland section of Eaton's department store in Toronto.
[5] His fascination with the elegance of sleight-of-hand and what Slaight himself termed "the brilliance of inventions"[6] resulted in a job as a performer touring Western Canada as mind reader "Will Powers".
Slaight co-hosted an annual magicians conference, 31 Faces North, with performing arts organization Magicana (Artistic Director David Ben) every summer.
[13] 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.
While at the University of Saskatchewan, Slaight worked as a columnist (A Sap's Fables) and jazz reviewer for the college newspaper, The Sheaf.
[18] Slaight dropped out of his studies at the University of Saskatchewan after his first year and balanced his burgeoning broadcasting career with his travelling magic show.
[23] Responsible for all programming and operations of CHUM-AM and its sister station CHUM-FM, Slaight remained with CHUM-1050 Ltd until 1966 when he and his family left the country for England.
[29] On July 13, 1972, Slaight was granted permission by Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to acquire 80 per cent holdings of Montreal-based station CFOX-AM.
[30] After receiving federal permission on May 22, 1973, Slaight Broadcasting Ltd. merged with IWC Communications (originally Industrial Wire and Cable) on July 1, 1973.
[8] But, the following day, 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.
[39] By December 1976, Slaight had successfully navigated Global out of debt and the television station had reached a break-even point in its day-to-day operations.
[40] Slaight and IWC exercised a "buy-sell clause" on December 22 to buy out its investment and financing partners Global Communications Ltd. and Seymour Epstein.
"[49] In early 1985, Slaight and a group of businessmen proposed a controversial idea, that of purchasing the CBC's English language TV network.
Selkirk once again raised their offer, requested a bid extension, and issued a premature press release that angered Hollinger Argus.
Conrad Black rejected Selkirk's bid primarily due to Slaight's willingness to sell off his current holdings to be in compliance with CRTC regulations.
[57] The acquisition of Standard Broadcasting brought CFRB, CKFM, CJAD-AM, CJFM-FM, Capital Radio in London, CJOH-TV,[59] and CKTB and CJQR (St. Catharines)[60] within his domain in addition to his then-current holdings.
Slaight himself returned to his radio roots and assumed responsibilities of CFRB's programming when his hired man, Peter Shurman, resigned.
[63] In that same year, Allan Slaight sold CJOH-TV (Ottawa), an affiliate of CTV so he could focus on expanding his radio holdings for Standard Broadcasting.
Both CHUM and Baton Broadcasting eagerly entered the bidding race, which encroached on Slaight's own Ottawa-based CJOH franchise.
Slaight, angered, appealed to the Federal Cabinet, citing that the "decision ha[d] the potential for changing the face of Canadian broadcasting.
"[66] But instead of opening a competing Ottawa station, Baton approached Slaight and offered to buy CJOH for a premium price of $85 million.
In the 1990s, Slaight continued expanding the company's acquisition base, acquiring CFCN-AM, CJAY-FM (from Calgary), CFRN-AM and CJKE-FM (from Edmonton), CKZZ-FM (Vancouver), CISL (Richmond).
[69] In June 2001, Standard Broadcasting acquired 64 radio stations from Quebec's Telemedia Corp., which was owned by the de Gaspe Beaubien family.
The acquisition complemented Standard's existing portfolio as they held a minority interest in Moontaxi (a jazz and classical music online radio service) and MapleCore Ltd. (an e-commerce portal selling concert merchandise and tickets).
[71] The sale did not include Standard's interests in Sirius Satellite Radio, Iceberg Media, Flow 93.5FM, Haliburton Broadcasting and Newcap Inc. in Alberta.
[74] Brought together by former Ontario Premier David Peterson (1 per cent holding), Slaight and Bitove were persuaded that Toronto was a market ready for an NBA franchise.
[78] The move was controversial to some, including General Manager Isiah Thomas, who himself had declared interest in gaining majority ownership.
[83] Ultimately the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan led the buyout of Slaight from the Raptors and Air Canada Centre, putting the two teams in one building and erecting Toronto's new home for hockey, basketball and concerts, and rebranding the business as Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.