First Business

First Business
Presented by	Angela Miles, Host & Managing Editor misc. contributors
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	260/year
Production
Executive producer(s)	Harvey Moshman (2008-present)
Running time	30 minutes, inc. advertising
Production company(s)	Weigel Broadcasting
Release
Original network	first-run syndication
Picture format	480i SDTV widescreen
Original release	1989 – December 26, 2014
External links
Website

First Business was 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, Reporters Chuck Coppola, Bill Moller, 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 from 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.

First Business ended its run with the December 26, 2014 broadcast. The program, which typically aired before local and national morning news timeslots, had been marginalized as those shows began to start earlier (as early as 4:00 a.m.), with First Business often moved to lower-rated and lower-viewed graveyard slots. The program's cancellation ended 47 years of Weigel Broadcasting and their flagship station WCIU-TV (channel 26) carrying and originating business-focused programming from Chicago.

Syndication

As of the Fall 2011 season, the program was carried daily on more than 100 US broadcast stations and in outlets across 46 foreign countries. The stations included affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW, MyNetworkTV, as well as independent stations. Air times varied, though the timeslots for the show in the majority of markets was 4:00am through 7:00am leading into early morning national newscasts or local morning newscasts. The only requirement the show enforced was that the program must air before the NYSE opening bell at 9:30am ET. The show was syndicated by Weigel Broadcasting and sold by Edward. E. Finch & Company.

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 Viacom 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, with video from the DC studios being fed to Minneapolis via satellite backhaul. 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 recorded 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 and the final iteration of the Stock Market Observer, a local Chicago program which aired on Weigel's flagship station WCIU-TV and Milwaukee sister station WMLW-CA throughout the business day. Bridge 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, with Weigel taking control of production of the program. 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 a morning offering. Production continues out of Chicago under the Technical Direction of Paige Blair and Editor Mariko Charvat. Colleen O'Neill is the show's Line Producer.

Anchor Tom Hudson did his last spot on the show on November 7, 2009. He left to become the anchor and managing editor on PBS' Nightly Business Report. After Hudson's departure, 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 has been anchor & managing editor since July 2011. Veteran newsman Chuck Coppola joined the team as co-anchor/reporter shortly thereafter.

Rounding out the on-camera reporting are Bill Moller - who does several studio interviews each week, as well as freelancers Jackie Keenan in Tampa, Ky Sisson in Washington DC, and Paul Eggers in North Carolina.

Harvey Moshman was the last Executive Producer, serving from June 2008 until the end.

Notable former on-air staff

• MSNBC Angela Miles CNN's Nicole Lapin and Stephanie Elam

External links

• First Business Official Site