Jim Shenkman fondly remembers what got him thinking about starting up a trade magazine in the mid-1980s, when he was itching to get into communications.

A lawyer by trade, Shenkman was among 22 applicants for a Toronto radio station licence in 1985, but was rejected by the CRTC.

‘I had been frustrated by that,’ he tells Playback Daily, and he began focusing on publishing, when he realized there was no trade press coverage of radio at the time.

‘There was only Broadcaster magazine, but it was not really talking about business news — it was more about equipment,’ he says.

Shenkman joined forces with former Marketing magazine associate editor Mark Smyka in 1986, and together they formed a plan to launch Playback, and subsequently its parent Brunico Communications, in August that year. (Brunico is named for a small town in Italy.)

‘I was 33 years-old at the time and didn’t know anything about publishing or entertainment,’ says Shenkman, smiling. ‘We put a mailing list together and started selling some ads…our first issue came out on Sept. 26.’

Shenkman, now 55, celebrated his last day with Brunico on Thursday. He had been acting as chairman since April, when the company was sold to a group of investors led by now-president and CEO Russell Goldstein.

Playback took off six months after the doors opened, according to Shenkman, recalling that one of the most encouraging signs was a contract ‘out of the blue’ from local TV station CFTO — which meant a color ad in every issue for a year.

Shenkman was itching to take his little company further, and in 1989 launched Strategy, followed by KidScreen, Realscreen and ‘Boards magazines. The brands were more recently expanded to include online publications Playback Daily, Media in Canada, and KidScreen Daily, and conferences including the annual Realscreen and KidScreen summits in Washington and New York, respectively.

‘To this day, we’re one of the only business publications doing international events and magazines,’ Shenkman says. ‘Being so small, it’s great to be able to balance being a Canadian company — and proud of it — with being a global company.’

His future plans include continued involvement with the International Centre — a Toronto trade/consumer show exhibition facility for which he sits on the board of directors — and is in talks to help produce a conference for an unnamed nonprofit organization. Shenkman is also looking for investment opportunities in entrepreneurial companies looking to grow outside of Canada.

‘I’d rather be investing than managing day-to-day. After 22 years, I’m ready for change,’ he says.