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After (ignobly) leaving Boston's Emerson College, where I studied Broadcasting in 1961-62, I was employed by CKCR (now defunct) in Kitchener Ontario, where I sold advertising and wrote copy, set up remotes, etc. With my college radio background, where vital personality traits won radio time, I used my unabashed outgoing style to design direct mail advertising and help pioneer outrageous Canadian radio advertising copy during my tenure (literally lived in my car, showered at the Y) there while I learned the broadcasting business. "(Roar! Scream! There's a tiger eating up Kitchener Ontario! Tiger Flooring blah blah blah)" etc. etc. (had a hell of a time convicing the station management to try this kind of stuff).
Eventually, I moved up through the ranks until I left the business in 1967 as head of the News Department (doing a DJ swing-shift on the weekends) at CKAP, a CBC affiliate station in Kapuskasing Ontario (still there). I moved on into other things.
Several years later in 1983, something possessed me to revive my advertising skills by opening up a full-service advertising agency in Toronto while I was practicing architecture there. So I took a small hiatus, and opened up an agency referred to in the trade as "Hey, Everybody!", although its full name was "Hey, Everybody! Here I am! For those who want to be noticed, Inc." (If you have a 1983 Toronto yellow pages, check out our ad & logo. At that time, advertising agencies in Toronto didn't self advertise. We had the yellow pages category wrapped up for nearly two years until the big guys followed suit.)
After several successful campaigns, I was forced to close the company doors in less than two years after being hung out to dry by a charitable client. After all their graphic advertising was researched, designed and printed, media purchased, the best halls booked coast-to-coast as concert venues, and talent actually flown into the country for the concert series, the client changed its mind about its planned Canada-wide fund-raising series of concerts and cancelled based upon its fear of potentially low ticket sales. The talent was furious, but though my creditors--based upon previous good business relations-- were forgiving and generous, they now required up-front money for any company-generated campaigns. Since an agency depends upon its credit with the media to function, "Hey, Everybody!" was forced out of business.
During the life of the company, it had entered a full multi media campaign in the Canadian competition for 'best campaign of the year' for the work it did (demographics, informal but thorough telephone opinion polling, concept, creative, artwork, media purchasing, television 30-second full animation commercial, billboard, transit, jingle, logo, client in-house rewards structure & pin for sales performance, PR grand opening with specialty mementos, and lawn signage) for Premore Realty in Toronto. It didn't win, but we were very proud of the quality of the work we did. Our campaigns were always designed around the client demographic, and never depended on creative for the message, only the creative delivery approach for presenting it.
Since that time, I have acted as public relations person for Toronto Distress Centers (1 year) and assisted with various other advertising and public relations gigs. When I began with Sparc~Air, it was with the infant company as Marketing Manager, receiving a promotion to Assistant Director of Marketing, wherein I set up a full-service in-house Marketing Group. Only later as an engineer did I become VP: Engineering & Industrial Sales. Although retired from the company, I now consult to it for graphics creative.
In case you hadn't noticed, I still love writing copy! 
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