INSIDE TV & RADIO; Fox Business Network Vows to Bring New Energy With a Familiar Face
By TIM CUPRISIN
A decade ago, the launch of a business channel by Fox would have been seen as a bold gamble.
With the Fox Business Network launching today, you wonder how it can possibly fail.
Spinoffs don’t always take, but the new channel, scheduled to begin operations at 4:30 a.m. Central Time, is the offspring of the highest-rated all-news channel.
The personality-driven formula behind Fox News is being repeated at Fox Business.
In Neil Cavuto’s case, it’s almost as if he’s being cloned, keeping his Fox News show at 3 p.m. weekdays while he oversees the business news content and plays a major on-camera role at the new FBN.
“Am I busy? Is something going on here?” he jokes.
So what will make FBN stand out from its main competitor, CNBC?
“We like what we’re doing. I think that counts for a lot. There’s a unique energy and enthusiasm here.
“When people have been doing something for, you know, two decades, while they become entrenched, they also begin to get predictable and lazy.”
Cavuto stresses that he’s not painting the entire opposition with that brush. He shouldn’t. There’s plenty of flash and dash at CNBC, from money honey Maria Bartiromo to “Mad Money” character Jim Cramer.
For the record, both Cavuto and Fox News czar Roger Ailes have CNBC on their rsum.
“We will bring a different perspective on things – not only more energetic, but more engaging, more open to debate, more open to challenging conventional wisdom. I think that can be very refreshing.”
Cavuto says there’s no plan for a Fox version of the money honey.
“When we started here at Fox News, I think it could arguably be said we had a cast that looked like the barroom scene in ‘Star Wars.’ But they gelled.”
And, most importantly, that cast of characters pulled in ratings that made Fox News the most-watched of the news channels.
Cavuto has a simple explanation for the success of the business shows on Fox News Channel, and the mission statement for the new enterprise.
“The fact of the matter is that it’s all English, it’s all clarity,” he says. “It’s all thinking with your heart and your head, and not just trying to prove and act like you’re the smartest kid in the class who knows the biggest words.”
You can hear the entire conversation with Cavuto in Inside TV & Radio’s latest podcast, available at www.jsonline.com/links/ cuprisin.
HOW TO WATCH: Time Warner Cable has Fox Business Network on Channel 164 for digital cable subscribers in southeast Wisconsin. The channel is also available on DirecTV and AT&T U-verse.
A RACINE HIGHLIGHT: That’s what Richard Trethewey, the plumbing and heating guy from public TV’s “This Old House,” will see today when he tours the InSinkErator plant.
One of the company’s disposals will be installed in the show’s current renovation project. The show airs at 7 p.m. Thursdays on Channel 10. The Racine episode will run at the end of December.
Reach Tim Cuprisin at (414) 224-2397 or tcuprisin@journalsentinel.com. Read his blog at blogs.jsonline.com/ cuprisin.
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