From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Financial News Network was a television network that operated throughout the United States throughout the 1980s. The channel, begun in November 1981 as an offshoot of original "business television" station KWHY in Los Angeles, was based in nearby Santa Monica, California. In 1982 the Station with the assistance of it's Chairman, the Harvard educated Jeremy Wiesen and his assistant, Patricia Greathouse relocated its' airing station, with the assistance of Merrill Lynch, to the ground floor of Merrill's headquarters in lower manhattan, NYC. FNN was the groundbreaking network to allow passerbys to view the stations' broadcast operations.

At first, the channel aired only during daytime hours on a mix of broadcast and cable stations. Over-the-air affiliates included:

• KSCI, Los Angeles
• WATL, Atlanta (now a MyNetworkTV affiliate)
• WPWR-TV, Chicago (also MyNetwork TV)
• KNXV, Phoenix (now an ABC affiliate)
• WSWS, Columbus, Georgia (now CW affiliate WLGA)

One of the cable affiliates was WCCO Two in the Twin Cities area, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

In 1985, FNN severed ties with its broadcast stations and established a 24-hour feed on cable TV only. At night, it added SCORE (television), a mini-network that aired sports events and news. Also airing in the overnight hours was Venture, a series of long-form speeches by business leaders, and TelShop, a shop-at-home service.

Harvey "Scott" Ellsworth, who was the creator and on-air host of the popular radio program, "Scott's Place", that aried on KFI-AM in Los Angeles from 1967 through 1974 IMDB Bio, was the evening anchor.

In 1991, FNN fell pray to the very subject of most of it's broadcasts, a financial scandal that eventually forced the company into bankruptcy. Amid charges of mismanagement, both on the financial and programming side, a rather lively bidding war got underway for the assets of the company. While many bidders claimed they intended to "put the networks affairs in order and continue operation," the eventual winner of the mess was the owner of FNN's rival network, CNBC. General Electric (owner of NBC), purchased the assets of FNN, and while it had been trailing in overall audience, it still shut down the rival network. Immediately giving FNN's channel slots on cable and satellite to it's own business channel, CNBC and fired most of FNN's employees. Bill Griffeth, Ron Insana, and Sue Herera all moved from FNN to CNBC, and all three are still at CNBC today.

This article about a television station in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.