SBTV/Pittsburgh was Founded in 1992 by Dean Conomikes. Conomikes felt local businesses were being underserviced by local television stations because their selling efforts were too focused on National and larger local accounts. On the other hand, local businesses felt that advertising on a local broadcast affiliated station was too costly, that it was “too big” for them and also believed the cost of producing a television commercial was beyond their expertise and BUDGET
Conomikes, who grew up around in the business when his father was the General Manager of WTAE and later the entire Hearst Broadcasting TV Group, had a print and radio background before he started SBTV.
“All the radio stations were getting the new, local business. I knew that if radio worked well for their local clients, and this was in the early 90’s when radio was still booming, TV would work better because of its enormous reach advantages (over radio)”
Two years later, Dean recruited a former colleague radio new business specialist , Todd Stewart, to start his new SBTV/Boston office. Stewart managed and operated SBTV Boston from 1993 to 2002 when he returned back to his native Pittsburgh to work for KDKA TV.
Since 1991, our primary partner has been WTAE TV .When Conomikes founded his other company, The Tellusmore Network, he brought back Stewart to run his Pittsburgh SBTV Business in 2006.
Since 1992, Stewart and Conomikes have put over 400 local businesses on Broadcast TV, most of them on Hearst-owned WTAE/ Pittsburgh and WCVB/Boston. Over 70% of these businesses have become consistent broadcast TV Advertisers after first using the medium for the first time through the services of SBTV.