Sol Boxenbaum, MY BIO or HOW I BECAME AN OVERNIGHT SENSATION IN ONLY 50 YEARS
While attending high school in Montreal in the 1950’s, I developed an ambition to work on radio. As my classmates were preparing to further their education in pursuit of academic degrees, I instead enrolled in a CBS radio course in broadcasting. Upon completion of my course I wrote to out-of-town radio stations in the hopes of arranging an audition. One by one the stations responded by asking me to contact them when I had on-air experience. It is noteworthy that at that time Cornwall, ON was a small town. The St. Lawrence Seaway did not even exist. St. Jerome, QC was a small town with a 10 000 watt station. Towns like Kirkland Lake, ON , and Malartic, Val D’Or, Rouyn, and Noranda, QC were certainly not booming metropolises expecting experienced announcers. So if one couldn’t gain experience there, then where?
Thus began the odyssey that would have me spend most of my adult life as a salesman. Why not? I had the gift of gab and I would use it in one form or another. There are many doors into the world of entertainment. Along the way I had made many attempts to put my extroverted persona into different lifestyles. I worked for four years as a standup comic, two years as a booking agent for dancers, and another couple of years managing singers and song writers. During and after Expo’67 I owned, with a partner, a coffee house in downtown Montreal. In 1972, I formed a production company and produced concerts in venues anywhere from Sir George Williams University to the Montreal Forum and Place des Arts. In the end, although we were friendly competitors, I could not continue to compete with Donald Tarleton (Donald K. Donald). Therefore I went back to what I did best, sales. In 1982 I moved to Regina, SK because the economy in Quebec had been going consistently downhill since the 70’s.
In 1995, I was approached by a director of the Canadian Mental Health Association (Sask.) to found an organization to trace the origin of gambling addiction and to develop prevention strategies that might alert the public to the inherent dangers of legalized gambling. In order to learn as much as possible within a limited time frame, I began to attend Gambling and Risk-Taking Conferences across Canada. At these conferences I was fortunate to meet the most learned psychologists and researchers of the time, experts who were lecturing on the various aspects of gambling addiction and the prevention and treatment of gambling addiction. As a result of these efforts, I developed a network of world-wide contacts, meeting many highly qualified professionals who were willing to share their knowledge with me. As a result of my passion to protect innocent people from falling prey to the advertising campaigns put forward by the provincial governments of Canada, along with my ability to speak publicly and knowledgeably at International conferences, I was soon sought out by various agencies requesting that I present my expertise on radio, on television, in newspapers, and in magazines.
One such opportunity had been a monthly guest appearance on the John Rossy show speaking as an expert on gambling addiction. After John Rossy passed away in 2005, I was able to convince the station to continue a talk-show that would provide an outreach center for addicts in the middle of the night. In 2006, CJAD aired the first edition of Last Call With Sol. The program remained on air until February 2010. At that time, despite its high ratings and a more than ample sponsorship, the show was canceled by the station due to management changes in terms of format.
If you wish to learn more about Sol and all that he has accomplished in his field please go to the following link: www.vivaconsulting.com
