First Business
Encyclopedia
First Business is a nationally syndicated
financial news and analysis television program
, produced by First Business Network LLC, a subsidiary
of Weigel Broadcasting
, in Chicago
. Anchor Angela Miles, Reporter/Producer Paul Eggers, Reporter Chuck Coppola, and Executive Producer Harvey Moshman bring viewers commentary from the floors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange
, as well as their studios in the West Loop. The program covers the financial and economic markets including equities, futures
, options
, commodities, foreign exchange
and geo-political news.
, NBC
, ABC
, Fox
, CW
, My TV and independent stations. Air times vary; however, stations are required to run the show before the financial markets open in New York. The show is syndicated by MGM Domestic Television MGM Television
, and sold by PIC Media Group.
and Hubbard Broadcasting.
From 1989 to 1996, Carl Grant anchored the program from BizNet's state of the art studios located in the US Chamber of Commerce building in Washington, DC. The early morning business newscast was created in 1989 following discussions between BizNet and Ian G. Rae, Executive Vice President, News, Fox Television Stations, Inc. At that time, Fox was in need of a commercially sustaining, live, early morning business news and information program to use as a lead in to its planned thirty-minute business program from London. From its inception through its BizNet years with the US Chamber, the First Business program production team was led by BizNet News Director Densil Allen, now head of Miramar Media Productions, LLC. The list of reporters and others who worked on the program is long, a small sampling would include CNBC
business correspondent Scott Wapner, Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni, author Warren Corbett, former PBS
Nightly Business Report
anchor Cassie Seifert, former FNN
correspondent Bruce Page, Capitol Hill reporters Jim Nash and Dan Kush, CNN Market Source business reporter Claire Leka, international broadcast producer and business correspondent Everett Banning, and many others.
In 1997, Barton Eckert moved to the anchor chair and continued in that role when the program was sold in 1999 to CONUS Communications, with production now originating from CONUS' Washington Bureau on K Steeet
. The program was produced for CONUS Communications by Joel Chalfin and later David Debo. Eckert remained anchor and managing producer until 2002. The CONUS version of the program also featured former CNNfn news anchor Jodi Davis and reporters Trish McShane, Terry Turner and Chris Chmura. The show aired feature packages from over 200 affiliate stations in the CONUS network. While CONUS used its DC studio to host talent, the actual program was cut live
-to-tape in their Minneapolis studio. The program was recorded early each morning by utilizing the available analog CONUS satellite transponders, allowing for multiple camera shots to be sent (in near real time) to and from each location. If market conditions were abnormal, or the writers needed additional time, the first airing of the program would be done live for the east coast audience then time delayed for other markets. While called "live to tape," the process was actually recoded on a Grass Valley
DDR which allowed for the show to begin playback in other markets before it had actually ended in the first market (tape was typically not used in the production). The show was directed by Bill Carr.
One year before CONUS disbanded in 2002, rights to the program were sold to WebFN.com, a financial news service streaming live news produced in conjunction with Bridge Information Services, which has since merged with Reuters
. First Business was produced out of New York by Arun Khosla, currently with the FOX Business Network
, who shifted the programs focus to the stock market. Stephanie Elam
hosted the show from the New York Stock Exchange
, however all post-production was done out of WebFN's Chicago office by WebFN personnel Scott Christiansen and Philip Richards.
In mid 2003, WebFN.com closed its doors, laying off both its Chicago
and New York
staff. First Business relaunched production and distribution from Chicago under the newly formed First Business Network, LLC. The show was headed by Executive Producer Scott Christiansen, Coordinating Producer Philip Richards and Editorial Director and Anchor Tom Hudson. Michele Steele, currently with Bloomberg Television
, was hired on as Associate Producer in the following weeks.
On January 3, 2005, the show was re-branded as First Business Morning News. With a new look and new co-anchor Angela Miles, the show was sold as a lead-in to local affiliates' own morning news programs. The show added 7% of TV households and reached its highest ever ratings with over 400,000 daily viewers. Major sponsorships included Sprint
, IBM
and Ameritrade. The Morning News moniker was dropped in September 2007, and the show is now available to stations as both a nightly and morning offering. Production continues out of Chicago under the Technical Direction of Paige Blair and Editor Mariko Charvat. Sukmeke Rainey Watkins is the show's Line Producer.
Tom Hudson did his last spot on the show on November 7, 2009. He is now the main anchor on PBS's Nightly Business Report. Co-anchor Beejal Patel assumed the anchor role through June 2011 when she left to work for Bloomberg TV.
Angela Miles returned to First Business and became Anchor & Managing Editor in July 2011.
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
financial news and analysis television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
, produced by First Business Network LLC, a subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
of Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting is an American locally based television broadcasting company. The company is based in downtown Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV , at the apt address of 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood.- History :The company was founded by Chicago...
, in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Anchor Angela Miles, Reporter/Producer Paul Eggers, Reporter Chuck Coppola, and Executive Producer Harvey Moshman bring viewers commentary from the floors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Chicago Mercantile Exchange
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is an American financial and commodity derivative exchange based in Chicago. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board. Originally, the exchange was a non-profit organization...
, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange
Chicago Board Options Exchange
The Chicago Board Options Exchange , located at 400 South LaSalle Street in Chicago, is the largest U.S. options exchange with annual trading volume that hovered around one billion contracts at the end of 2007...
, as well as their studios in the West Loop. The program covers the financial and economic markets including equities, futures
Futures contract
In finance, a futures contract is a standardized contract between two parties to exchange a specified asset of standardized quantity and quality for a price agreed today with delivery occurring at a specified future date, the delivery date. The contracts are traded on a futures exchange...
, options
Option (finance)
In finance, an option is a derivative financial instrument that specifies a contract between two parties for a future transaction on an asset at a reference price. The buyer of the option gains the right, but not the obligation, to engage in that transaction, while the seller incurs the...
, commodities, foreign exchange
Foreign exchange market
The foreign exchange market is a global, worldwide decentralized financial market for trading currencies. Financial centers around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of different types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends...
and geo-political news.
Syndication
As of the Fall 2011 season, the program airs daily on more than 100 US broadcast stations and in outlets across 46 foreign countries. Affiliates include CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, Fox
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
, CW
CW
-Arts:* Carl Wheezer, a character in Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius* Creative writing* Cryptic Writings, an album by Megadeth-Companies:* Cable & Wireless, a British telecommunications company* Colonial Williamsburg...
, My TV and independent stations. Air times vary; however, stations are required to run the show before the financial markets open in New York. The show is syndicated by MGM Domestic Television MGM Television
MGM Television
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television is an American television production/distribution launched in 1955 and a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc....
, and sold by PIC Media Group.
History
The First Business program was originally launched in 1989 by BizNet, the broadcast division of the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. When the US Chamber decided to end its various television productions, rights to the show were sold to CONUS Communications, a joint venture between ViacomViacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
and Hubbard Broadcasting.
From 1989 to 1996, Carl Grant anchored the program from BizNet's state of the art studios located in the US Chamber of Commerce building in Washington, DC. The early morning business newscast was created in 1989 following discussions between BizNet and Ian G. Rae, Executive Vice President, News, Fox Television Stations, Inc. At that time, Fox was in need of a commercially sustaining, live, early morning business news and information program to use as a lead in to its planned thirty-minute business program from London. From its inception through its BizNet years with the US Chamber, the First Business program production team was led by BizNet News Director Densil Allen, now head of Miramar Media Productions, LLC. The list of reporters and others who worked on the program is long, a small sampling would include CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
business correspondent Scott Wapner, Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni, author Warren Corbett, former PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
Nightly Business Report
Nightly Business Report
Nightly Business Report is a Business news television magazine broadcast live Monday to Friday evenings on most public television stations in the United States. Every weeknight, Nightly Business Report distills the essence of what matters in the business world, and provides analysis and reflection...
anchor Cassie Seifert, former FNN
Financial News Network
The Financial News Network was a television network that operated throughout the United States during the 1980s.-Founding:Financial News Network was founded in 1981 by two men: Rodney Buchser, who had been general manager of KWHY, Channel 22 in Los Angeles and Glenn Taylor. The concept originated...
correspondent Bruce Page, Capitol Hill reporters Jim Nash and Dan Kush, CNN Market Source business reporter Claire Leka, international broadcast producer and business correspondent Everett Banning, and many others.
In 1997, Barton Eckert moved to the anchor chair and continued in that role when the program was sold in 1999 to CONUS Communications, with production now originating from CONUS' Washington Bureau on K Steeet
K Street (Washington, D.C.)
K Street is a major thoroughfare in the United States capital of Washington, D.C. known as a center for numerous think tanks, lobbyists, and advocacy groups.-Location:...
. The program was produced for CONUS Communications by Joel Chalfin and later David Debo. Eckert remained anchor and managing producer until 2002. The CONUS version of the program also featured former CNNfn news anchor Jodi Davis and reporters Trish McShane, Terry Turner and Chris Chmura. The show aired feature packages from over 200 affiliate stations in the CONUS network. While CONUS used its DC studio to host talent, the actual program was cut live
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
-to-tape in their Minneapolis studio. The program was recorded early each morning by utilizing the available analog CONUS satellite transponders, allowing for multiple camera shots to be sent (in near real time) to and from each location. If market conditions were abnormal, or the writers needed additional time, the first airing of the program would be done live for the east coast audience then time delayed for other markets. While called "live to tape," the process was actually recoded on a Grass Valley
Grass Valley
-Places:United States* Grass Valley, California, a city in Nevada County** Roman Catholic Diocese of Grass Valley, a former diocese based in the California city* Little Grass Valley, California, a former town in Plumas County...
DDR which allowed for the show to begin playback in other markets before it had actually ended in the first market (tape was typically not used in the production). The show was directed by Bill Carr.
One year before CONUS disbanded in 2002, rights to the program were sold to WebFN.com, a financial news service streaming live news produced in conjunction with Bridge Information Services, which has since merged with Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
. First Business was produced out of New York by Arun Khosla, currently with the FOX Business Network
Fox Business Network
Fox Business Network is an American cable news and satellite news television channel that began broadcasting on October 15, 2007. It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...
, who shifted the programs focus to the stock market. Stephanie Elam
Stephanie Elam
Stephanie Elam was born on January 23, 1974 and is best known for her former job as a CNN business news correspondent for Headline News and CNN International.-Background:...
hosted the show from the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
, however all post-production was done out of WebFN's Chicago office by WebFN personnel Scott Christiansen and Philip Richards.
In mid 2003, WebFN.com closed its doors, laying off both its Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
staff. First Business relaunched production and distribution from Chicago under the newly formed First Business Network, LLC. The show was headed by Executive Producer Scott Christiansen, Coordinating Producer Philip Richards and Editorial Director and Anchor Tom Hudson. Michele Steele, currently with Bloomberg Television
Bloomberg Television
Bloomberg Television is a 24-hour global network broadcasting business and financial news. It is distributed globally, reaching over 200 million homes worldwide. It is owned and operated by Bloomberg L.P...
, was hired on as Associate Producer in the following weeks.
On January 3, 2005, the show was re-branded as First Business Morning News. With a new look and new co-anchor Angela Miles, the show was sold as a lead-in to local affiliates' own morning news programs. The show added 7% of TV households and reached its highest ever ratings with over 400,000 daily viewers. Major sponsorships included Sprint
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Ameritrade. The Morning News moniker was dropped in September 2007, and the show is now available to stations as both a nightly and morning offering. Production continues out of Chicago under the Technical Direction of Paige Blair and Editor Mariko Charvat. Sukmeke Rainey Watkins is the show's Line Producer.
Tom Hudson did his last spot on the show on November 7, 2009. He is now the main anchor on PBS's Nightly Business Report. Co-anchor Beejal Patel assumed the anchor role through June 2011 when she left to work for Bloomberg TV.
Angela Miles returned to First Business and became Anchor & Managing Editor in July 2011.