Robert I. Silberberg was appointed Executive Vice President, Director of Programming and New Media Ventures at Bates USA in June 1994. In this position, he had direct responsibility for overseeing client programming at the agency, as well as seeking new ventures and alliances for Bates USA in the media and communications fields. He previously had been Director of National Broadcast and Programming at Bates.

Prior to joining the agency, Bob was Vice President of News, Daytime and Children’s Sales at CBS; President of Syndicast Services, Inc., and for 20 years, as a sales executive at ABC Television Network, where he rose from an Assistant Daytime Sales Manager to Senior Vice-President, General Sales Manager, with overall sales responsibility for all prime-time programming.

Leonard Koch founded Koch Communication, Inc. in 1988. The company specialized in the placing of TV shows in syndication, primarily on a barter basis, giving the show to TV stations in return for time with the show. Koch then sold that national time to advertisers.

In 1970, he founded and became Chairman of Syndicast Services, Inc., which revolutionized the syndication business by offering first-run programs to TV networks in return for advertising time.