First Business

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First Business is a nationally syndicated business news television program, produced by WCIU-TV in Chicago. Hosts Tom Hudson and Beejal Patel bring viewers business news from the Chicago Board of Trade. The program is designed, as it's website says, to be an idea-source for traders: "Not just equities, but any investment moving the market including futures, options and geo-political news."

The program, which airs for 30 minutes on approximately 180 stations as well as the America One television network, includes commentary on market movers and concentrates on upcoming events that could effect the days trading. It is produced by WCIU, a Chicago independent UHF station owned by Weigel Broadcasting, and grew out of their WebFN financial service, a streaming TV station produced in conjunction with Bridge Information Services, a financial news service.

The show was originally launched in 1991 as a production of The US Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC. When the US Chamber decided to end its various television productions, rights to the show passed to CONUS Communications, a division of Hubbard Broadcasting founded in 1984 to provide newsgathering services to local news stations.

From 1989 to 2002, Barton Eckert hosted the show from CONUS's DC Bureau, as an early morning business newscast focussed on information for the small business owner. Produced and written with Eckert by David Debo, the progam also featured non-business news headlines former CNNfn news anchor Jodi Davis with CONUS's All News Channel. Reporters Trish McShane, Terry Turner, Marti Johnson and Chris Chmura contributed DC stories, and the show aired feature packages from over 200 affiliate stations in the CONUS network.

While CONUS used their DC studio to host talent, the actual show was cut live to tape in their Minneapolis studio. The show 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 show 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 of the show, most everything was run from DDR. For much of the CONUS run of the show the lead director and technical director was Benjamin Higginbotham. After Benjamin left the show the lead responsibility fell to Jeremy Elfering.

One year before CONUS disbanded in 2002 rights to the program were sold to the current producers, and the program's focus shifted to its current focus on the stock market, under WCIU's tenure.

The website firstbusiness.tv is no longer connected to the show, and the name "First Business" is also used by an unrelated investment firm in Madison Wisconsin.