Outside Cable News

Via TheStreet
Kass: Things I Am Hearing
By Doug Kass

8. Fox Business Network is about to announce a broad overhaul after recording poor audience ratings.

>Ummm, would that be the “overhaul” they just did to the schedule? Or is something else in the works?

>Read the rest at TheStreet.

Via Business Wire
RCN Wins Stevie® Award In 6th Annual American Business Awards

Company Receives Award for Best Communication Team

HERNDON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–RCN Corporation (NASDAQ: RCNI), a leading provider of digital television, data, and voice services to residential and business customers, announced today that it won a Stevie Award in the Best Communication Team category at The 2008 American Business Awards last week.

Hailed as “the business world’s own Oscars” (New York Post, April 27, 2005), The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.

“Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word “crowned,” the awards were presented during ceremonies at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. The ceremonies were hosted by Cheryl Casone, an anchor of the FOX Business Network.

>Read the rest at Business Wire.

Via Broadcast Engineering
FOX News acquires fiber transport links

FOX News in New York City has acquired 50 MultiDyne HD-1500 HD-SDI fiber links for HD fiber transport.

The links will help FOX News meet its changing broadcast requirements for HD. FOX News announced in May that it had begun offering an HD version to Time Warner customers in select regions. Last fall, FOX also rolled out the FOX Business Channel in HD.

The MultiDyne HD-1500 provides looping, equalized, reclocked inputs and dual outputs. The product provides for fiber-optic transport and distribution of nearly any digital signal of 5Mb/s-1.5Gb/s. Supported standards include SMPTE 292M 1.485Gb/s, SMPTE 259M with operation of 143Mb/s-360Mb/s, SMPTE 310M 19.4Mb/s, M2S or DVB-ASI 270Mb/s, SMPTE 344M 540Mb/s and SMPTE 305M SDTi rates. The systems will transparently pass any embedded audio and data. Audio and data must be embedded and extracted separately.

For more information, visit www.multidyne.com.

Via Shreveport Times
Chamber to honor businesses at luncheon
From Staff Reports

The Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce will give “A 5-Star Salute” to its top businesses of the year on June 18.

The luncheon will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Summer Grove Baptist Church event center.

The Port of Shreveport-Bossier will be honored as the J. Pat Beaird Memorial Industry of the Year.

Stuart Varney, business and financial journalist for FOX News will be the keynote speaker. Varney’s speech is titled “21st Century America: A New Day in Politics, Culture and Business.”

Other businesses to be honored include Praeses LLC, Insty-Prints of Shreveport, High Lifter Products, Inc., Synapse Multimedia, Henderson Construction Services, Inc., Aillet, Fenner, Jolly and McClelland, Inc., JEB Design/Build LLC
RSI Building Products LLC, Drew LeBlanc’s Elite Fitness, Prevot Design Services Dais Apparel and the Training Academy of Dental Assistants.

Via Fox Business
Co-Anchoring Happy Hour Ain’t Easy but I Probably Shouldn’t Complain (or, Yes They Do Pay Me to Interview Petra Nemcova)
By Cody Willard

Last night, I lost a lot of sleep as I fretted, worried, stressed, and otherwise thought about my job as a co-anchor of Happy Hour on Fox Business Network. It’s a new network, a new show, and I hadn’t really much of a clue about what doing TV for a living was like when I signed up…

My current least favorite part of talking on TV for an hour a day about stuff I care about — studying the core of how you present and communicate yourself and your thoughts for an hour a day for months on end…Why didn’t I stop that question there? What insecurity did that guest’s comment uncover that made me backtrack? I mean, you sit there watching yourself, trying to improve how you interact with people so that it’s more enjoyable, more fun…and it’s your very job to obsess about doing so. How can I quantify my interviewing skills so that I can track any improvement (hope-for improvement, at least!).

At any rate, like I said, I was really stressed out about my job after a tough-behind-scenes episode last night…and then I come in this morning for another hard, stressful day at work and they tell me here’s one of my guests I need to prepare for today:

>Read the rest at Fox Business.

Via Business Wire
FlightView Signs FOX Business Network

Expands Partnership to Deliver Real-Time Flight Information for On-Air Programming as well as FoxBusiness.com

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–With a deal between FOX Business Network (FBN) and FlightView®, viewers in more than 35 million homes nationwide will have access to up-to-the-minute information about flight delays as part of FBN’s on-air programming. The agreement extends the partnership between the cable television network and the leading provider of real-time flight information to give consumers the actionable information they need to manage their travel plans – both online and on the air.

Airport delay information, already available by FlightView online and in airports, is a preferred resource for travelers looking for reliable up-to-the-minute information. Graphically pleasing and easy-to-read, the complete and accurate view of travel includes air traffic, weather and traffic congestion in and out of U.S. airports and is automatically refreshed and updated continually.

“We are extremely pleased to extend our working partnership with the team at FOX,” said Michael Benjamin, CEO of FlightView. “Making this information available through multiple channels means Fox viewers get the information they want, whenever and wherever they need it – a great way to build loyalty.”
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Via Multichannel News
Politics In High Definition
Election Helps Drive Cable’s High-Def News Coverage
By George Winslow

With voters pondering the prospect of the first African-American or woman gaining the presidential nomination of a major party, cable news networks are preparing to make television history with their coverage of the election in high-definition.

“For those of us who cover politics and elections, this is the election you want to do,” said David Bohrman, senior vice president and Washington, D.C., bureau chief for CNN. “We knew from the beginning it was going to be interesting with two open races but it has turned into this amazing story that has almost transitioned into a spectator sport. That has really caught on with people.”

It has also caught on with networks ramping up their high-def offerings. HDNet provided gavel-to-gavel high-definition coverage of the conventions in 2004, but this year will mark the first time that the major broadcasters and 24-hour cable news networks will be using an HD pool feed.

“We expect HD to be a big part of our convention coverage and going forward a big part of everything we do,” said Warren Vandaveer, senior vice president of operations and engineering for Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, which will provide the pool feed for the Democratic Convention in Denver in high-definition. “All the pool members wanted an HD feed, and we’ll be providing that.”
(more…)

Via MarketWatch
TV biz journalists owe Mike Kandel a big debt
Commentary: Plus, the appropriate blame in the NYT-Emily Gould affair
By Jon Friedman

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Myron Kandel vividly remembers when he was about to begin a career in television nearly three decades ago.
At a meeting of the Society of Business Writers and Editors, Kandel, a lifelong print journalist, told some friends about his plans to join something called the Cable News Network.
Elizabeth Yamashita, a rather blunt professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, looked at the unprepossessing Kandel and shot back, “YOU are going to be on television?”

Chagrined, Kandel replied, “Yes, Elizabeth, I’M going to be on television.”

Kandel, who started at CNN in 1980, didn’t bother to mention what he told me a few weeks ago: that his entire body of TV work until that point had consisted of three appearances on panel shows.
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Via Silicon Alley Insider
CNBC: Cramer Up In Turbulent Markets, Donny Down
By Michael Learmonth

Advice for Donny Deutsch: scream a little more.

CNBC is positioning the super-tan ad man as the Oprah for entrepreneurs, but his show, “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch,” cratered in May, averaging 114,000 viewers at 10 p.m., down 25% from last year, according to Nielsen.

Jim Cramer’s hyperactive “Mad Money,” however, had a good month despite turbulence in the financial markets. Cramer was up 21% to average 214,000 viewers at 6 p.m.

Cramer (SA 100 #19) has the advantage of catching the market faithful at 6 p.m. when they’re still in that frame of mind. At 10 p.m., Deutsch has stiffer competition across the dial — like CBS’s CSI — and his show is dragging down CNBC’s primetime, which was down 19% year-over-year. (Overall CNBC ratings, including daytime, are up 17% y/y.)
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via PR-inside

The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.

Stevie Award winners will be announced during the annual gala on Thursday, June 12 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. More than 600 executives from across the U.S.A. are expected to attend. The ceremonies will be broadcast on radio nationwide by the Business TalkRadio Network and hosted by Liz Claman of FOX Business Network.

>Read the rest at PR-inside.

>Just caught a bit of Sky Business Australia on FBN from 6-7am Eastern. Strangely, at the end, Alexis Glick had a canned piece talking about love down under? Anyway, I don’t like FBN’s chyron all over the other one of course.. Another capture after the jump.

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Via The Times-Picayune
The Cable Show (Day Four): ‘Happy Hour’ and more cable caring
By Dave Walker

My Tuesday at The Cable Show in reverse:

A hearty 5 p.m. toast at Pat O’Brien’s of the bright red house drink by the crew of “Happy Hour” concluded the Fox Business Network’s Cable Show outreach effort.

An offspring of the Fox News Channel, the new business network brought two of its shows to New Orleans for live broadcasts during the convention, an annual gathering of the cable-TV industry that returned to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.

“Money for Breakfast,” featuring guests both local (Drew Brees) and Cable Show-related, originated from Cafe du Monde on Monday morning.

“Happy Hour,” a freewheeling hour normally done live from barstools at the Bull and Bear steakhouse/saloon at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, did Tuesday show’s from Pat O’Brien’s sweltering patio. Charlie Johnson of local Dredging Supply Co., awarded the President’s “E” Certificate for Exports, was among the episode’s guests.

“You don’t see any show, any news program or business program that originates live from a bar and has the kind of guests that we have and is free to do the antics that we do and basically have fun and make business news accessible to people like my friends and family back in San Jose, Calif.,” said cohost Rebecca Gomez, a Fox News Channel veteran. “Business news is very intimidating to people.”
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>If the video box is blank, you might be able to see it with this link.

>While this outfit doesn’t even compare to the last time I shamed Glick.. You have to admit she does look a bit trashy, eh?!

Via Jossip
Did Fox Business Fire Shahnaz Hussain Because She Complained of Harassment, or Because She’s Terrible at Her Job?

There’s a rumor going around that London-import Shahnaz Hussain, who until recently worked at the Fox Business Network, was axed from the network after complaining about being sexually and racially harassed.

So the story goes, Scott Bleier, the network’s business analyst and contributor, allegedly made inappropriate comments/advances toward Hussain, which she complained about to HR and Fox’s legal head, Diane Brandi, who “did nothing.” A few days later, operations SVP Brian Jones showed her the door.

Other details include colleagues being told not to associate with Hussain, having their email and BlackBerrys rummaged through, and being told “to degrade her performance” and “to lie and vilify” her. FoxBusiness.com managing editor Ray Hennessey, FBN’s Brian Jones, and FNC programming VP Kevin Magee spoke with Hussain’s peers in recent weeks, the story goes, and told them not to have any contact with Hussain, inside or outside work.

>Read the rest at Jossip.

Via Ballot Access News

FOX Business Network Hosts Libertarian Presidential Debate

FOX Business Network will host a televised debate between two contenders for the Libertarian presidential nomination, Mike Gravel and Wayne Allyn Root, on May 16 (Friday), at 8:10 am (eastern time). There will be a 10-minute session which ends at 8:20; then there will be a second session, also 10-minutes, that starts at 8:40.

Also, Reason Magazine hosts a 3-person debate on May 20 in Washington, DC, at 4 pm eastern time. That debate will not be televised, but will include Gravel, Root, and Bob Barr.

Via NYT
Bloomberg L.P. Fills Post, Suggesting Shift to News
By TIM ARANGO

The news business may be in the doldrums, but the competition over business news could be heating up.

Bloomberg L.P., the financial data and news giant founded by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, said Monday that it had hired Norman Pearlstine, the former top editor of Time Inc. and The Wall Street Journal, to the new position of chief content officer.

The move suggests that Bloomberg, whose fortunes have been buoyed by the selling of its hugely profitable data terminals to brokerage firms and investment banks, plans to expand the journalism side of its business.

Bloomberg’s sprawling operation, which includes 2,300 editorial employees, a television outfit and a radio station, has largely been used as a tool for the Bloomberg terminals. But the growth in terminal sales has slowed with the economy and as Wall Street suffers from the fallout of the mortgage crisis.
(more…)

Via TVDecoder
A New Schedule for Fox Business
By Brian Stelter

Viewers of the Fox Business Network — and it remains unclear how many there are — may notice a number of changes on Monday.

The new schedule:

5 to 7 a.m.: “Fox Business Morning” with Jenna Lee and Connell McShane
7 to 9 a.m.: “Money for Breakfast” with Alexis Glick
9 to 10 a.m.: “The Opening Bell” with Alexis Glick
10 a.m. to noon: “Fox Business” with Dagen McDowell and Brian Sullivan
Noon to 1 p.m.: “Fox Business” with Cheryl Casone and Tom Sullivan
1 to 2 p.m.: “Fox Business” with Stuart Varney
2 to 3 p.m.: “Fox Business” with Liz Claman and David Asman
3 to 4 p.m.: “Countdown to the Closing Bell” with Liz Claman
4 to 5 p.m.: “Fox Business Bulls & Bears” with Liz Claman and David Asman

>Read the rest at TVDecoder.

Via B&C
Fox News Seeks College Knowledge
Network Expands Partnership with Student-Reporter Network The Palestra
By Marisa Guthrie

Fox News Channel is expanding its partnership with student-reporter Web site The Palestra, a digital-news resource with 200 college and university affiliates, to woo young viewers.

The news channel is syndicating Palestra content to several aggregators, including Yahoo and Comcast, and Palestra reporters have contributed segments to FOXNews.com since last fall, when the cable network reached a deal with the college network.

The site will relaunch next week as Palestra.net with the tag, “The College Network.” And within the next couple of weeks, Fox News will begin offering The Palestra’s daily news update, Gnarly News at Noon, to mobile-phone users.

Palestra and Fox Business Network will partner on a Web destination dedicated to economic issues facing college students and recent graduates, said Joel Cheatwood, Fox News’ senior vice president of development.

And once there are two clear presidential nominees, youth-vote election forums will get underway, streamed on Palestra.net and FOXNews.com.
(more…)

>TVNewser reports FBN’s Peter Barnes is leaving the anchor desk. As you might recall, I have wanted FBN to boot this guy from the start.

Via MarketWatch
What makes Alexis Glick tick? A high-energy job
Commentary: The Wall Street veteran is exactly what Fox Business needs
By Jon Friedman

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Fox Business Network anchor Alexis Glick is simply irrepressible.
Summing up her cheerful demeanor on television, the former Alexis Cahill Donnelly said: “It’s that Irish smile — I can’t wipe it off my face.”
Describing her dream job, she said: “To work in the management of an NFL franchise.” She quickly corrected herself, echoing Condoleezza Rice: “No, I want to be the NFL commissioner.”
And her dream broadcasting gig? “I would love to be on Fox’s NFL pregame show — but I’m not doing the weather!”
One of my colleagues suggested I write a story for this series titled “A Day in the Life of Alexis Glick.” The angle presented a problem, however, because I’d need a Herculean supply of human growth hormones, just to keep up with this force of nature.
Her energy level never abates, whether she’s conducting an interview, assessing economic data or analyzing the big deal du jour. No news is mundane to her.
“She has more energy than anyone should be allowed to have, especially given the fact that she is up and running before dawn,” said Kevin Magee, executive vice president at Fox News. “It’s all we can do to keep up with her.”
Recently, returning home after a weekend in London with her husband of nine years, the mother of three boys age 6 and under wrote tongue-in-cheek in her blog on the Fox Business site (at http://glickreport.blogs.foxbusiness.com): “If I’m pregnant, you’ll be the first to know.”
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Via BroadcastBuyer
VDS Provides Financial Graphics Suite To Fox Business Network

VDS has provided a suite of Financial Graphics software applications for the automated generation of financial graphics at the Fox Business Network.

The cornerstone of the application suite is a custom-developed system which provides the 24x7 FBN ticker and “HD Wing.” All graphics are generated by graphics engines provided by Vizrt.

The VDS HotBoards module provides for the template-driven display of live financial data in either a full page numeric display (board) or a live chart (line graph). Using the suite of template management tools, live data feeds from financial data sources are mapped to pre-defined Vizrt templates. Pages created from these templates can be built into stacks by production personnel and stored/recalled at any time for playout. Once a board or chart is aired, its data values are continuously updated live, ensuring that the most recent data is always displayed.

The Fox Business Network ticker, which includes a graphics ‘wing’ for HD viewers provides for 24x7x365 operation, with full support for live insertion of content, as well as scheduled/unattended playout of pre-defined playlists.
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Via TheStreet
By David Morrow
Eric Bolling Joins TheStreet.com

We have some exciting news here at TheStreet.com. Eric Bolling, the renowned television personality who is currently a host on Fox Business Network, has joined TheStreet.com as an outside contributor.

I am thrilled to have Eric with us. He’s the ultimate contributor who can write, speak, and share his broad experience. Eric specializes in commodities, resource trades and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and will bring analysis in all those areas — and more - here at TheStreet.com.

Eric is truly a renaissance man. He’s one of the few people I know who is a former professional baseball player — in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization — a former Wall Street trader and a television personality, all in one lifetime.
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Via PR-inside
Massachusetts Governor Patrick and Former Florida Governor Bush To Discuss Biotechnology Innovation and Development At 2008 BIO International Convention

Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) George Goodno, 202-962-6660 The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today announced that Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) and Former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) will discuss Biotechnology: The Role of Government in Facilitating Research and Discovery in 2009 and Beyond at the 2008 BIO International Convention. The keynote discussion will take place Tuesday, June 17, at 11:45 a.m. in the San Diego Convention Center.

Neil Cavuto, anchor of Fox Network’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” will facilitate the discussion, focusing on what government can do to foster innovation and growth in the life science industry. The discussion will also investigate what will be required of the new administration and our national leaders to foster biotech innovation and discovery, not only in the U.S. but also in the ever expanding and changing global marketplace.

>Read the rest at PR-inside.

TVNewser reports Rudy will be hosting America’s Nightly Scoreboard tonight at 7pm on FBN.

Via B&C
Fox News Channel to Take HD Leap
Time Warner Cable to Begin Carrying Fox News HD in Select Markets Thursday
By Glen Dickson

Fox News Channel will become the latest cable network to launch an HD service when it begins broadcasting in the 720-line progressive HD format Thursday.

Fox News HD, which will be a simulcast of Fox News’ standard-definition service, will initially be carried by Time Warner Cable in “select regions,” Fox News vice president of affiliate sales Tim Carry said.

Fox News HD will launch on Time Warner Cable in various parts of New York including Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island (channel 744) and Hudson Valley (channel 762). Time Warner also agreed to carry the new HD channel in San Antonio on channel 152.

Video from the Fox News studios and stand-up locations at the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Exchange will originate in true HD for the new service, with additional field footage in HD planned for later this year. Fox News HD will also provide the HD pool feed for coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.

The new HD service will include added content on the screen in the form of an “HD wing” graphic, which will display national and world headlines, financial-market news, weather updates and sports scores. Fox Business Channel, which launched in HD last fall on DirecTV, also uses graphics to display additional content on the HD picture screen.

>Guess which anchor blogged that line and win! But, what do ya win? Nothing, eh.

Via DealBreaker
Portfolio Columnists Should Not Throw Stones
By Muffie Benson-Perella
>EXCERPT

I really don’t think Portfolio is being fair to Cody Willard. The Fox Business host is mocked in the most condescending of tones by Jeff Bercovici, who given his appearance, should probably not be throwing stones. This is a pity, because he looks a little like Dan Loeb (Danny, I left messages, call me, ok?). Well, all right, Dan Loeb after a some really bad coke and wrong turn somewhere in New Jersey.

The world of finance is very image conscious. Cody understands this implicitly. His Samson-like tendrils are a statement. A strong and powerful message. “I am here,” they silently protest. Financial media is even more image conscious than finance is. So it stands to reason that Cody would be particular about his hair.

Still, Cody, we might have to work on that tie.

Via WOUB
FOX News chairman shares advice, tales with students

Success comes from within. That’s what FOX News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, a 1962 alumnus of Ohio University’s radio-television program, told Scripps College of Communication students Wednesday: Be your best self, work hard and be happy. Success will follow.

Ailes, on campus Tuesday and Wednesday for the dedication of the Roger E. Ailes Newsroom on campus, interacted with students at a roundtable; during the “Athens MidDay” preparation, live broadcast and after-broadcast critique; and over lunch.

“When I was young, I didn’t think I’d be happy until I was successful,” he said. “When I got older, I knew I wouldn’t be successful until I was happy. People tend to search outside themselves for the formula for success, but it’s within you. The more important thing is to search for happiness, and success will come.”

Ailes served as WOUB Radio’s student station manager for two years before he set off on a notable career as a television producer, executive and political media consultant. He oversaw the creation and launch of the FOX News Channel in 1996 and, more recently, the startup of FOX Business Network.

Ailes advised students who aspire to work on-air to be aware of their voice and its power with viewers. Practice the basic skills of journalism, he told them, and be consistent in your look and confident in your individuality.

“Ninety percent of the people I interview for on-air jobs don’t have the voice. They don’t understand they need to speak in a way that compels people to look at the TV,” he said. “Your job is not to sound like somebody else. Your job is to sound like you, at your best.”
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