Marketplace

KPBX 91.1fm: Monday-Friday 4-4:30pm
KSFC 91.9: Monday-Friday 5:30-6pm

Marketplace is “the business show for the rest of us,” the
most popular business-news program on radio, TV, or cable.

Marketplace began in 1989 as a scrappy start-up radio program housed in a suburban strip mall next to the Merry Maids cleaning service in Long Beach, Calif., just south of Los Angeles. The staff sat on cardboard boxes of computer paper, used single-line phones and made use of a studio with a door that wouldn’t stay closed.

“We had nothing but our vision and our faith in that vision,”
said Jim Russell, the veteran broadcaster who conceived of and launched Marketplace. “We wanted to create a business program that was both intelligent and witty, and we wanted it to appeal to a much broader audience than just ‘businessmen.’”

“Our show is for people who may not know an IPO from a CEO, but who are intelligent and genuinely curious about how the world looks through a different lens,” says host David Brown. “It’s often irreverent and conversational in tone, but we cover serious subjects while working very hard to tickle the intellectual funny bone. It’s a wonderful challenge for a journalist: to inform and delight at the same time.”

For example, the host introduces the day’s Dow Jones Industrial Average with, “Let’s do the numbers.” If the market is down, they play “Stormy Weather;” “We’re In the Money” when it’s up. When the market is mixed, the song is “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).”

Marketplace attracts listeners by covering serious issues such as the war in Iraq and abuse of child workers along with topics in sync with global economic trends — drawing from bureaus in Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Beijing, London and Tokyo, as well as correspondents in the Middle East and other regions. Segments such as “The Real Home Ec” — which measures the pain and suffering of home repairs against the financial benefits — offer a lighter touch.

“We feel every story can have a business angle,” Russell says. “Try naming a story unrelated to the economy or personal finance. Marketplace isn’t really a show about money; instead, it is a program that looks at the entire world through the lenses of business, economics and finance.

Another unique aspect to Marketplace is its base in on the West Coast. Not only does this give the show access to the Pacific Rim, it encourages the staff to stay innovative. “It protects us from ‘inside the beltway’ thinking,” Russell says. “We were able to develop our own voice, a new voice not overwhelmed by the traditionally Eastern-dominated media.”

Even the name had to be unique, the staff thought 15 years ago. The name Marketplace was selected from over 100 possibilities, including the working title “Business Today.” The staff argued that the word “business” would identify it with other business programming, when they wanted one to appeal to listeners not attracted to the usual business fare. “The strategy proved correct, and our favorite letters are from listeners who say ‘I hate business and economics, but I love Marketplace!’” says Russell.

Executive Producer J.J. Yore believes the secret to Marketplace’s success is that the show constantly reinvents itself. “That’s why we sound so young and fresh, at an age when many programs have settled into comfortable but static middle age. And the need for information about business and the global economy, delivered in a lively and inventive way, is greater than ever. That’s why we’re convinced that our next 15 years will be even more exciting than the first 15,” he says.

The program plans to continue growing. “Although more people turn to Marketplace for business news than any program on CNBC or CNN or anywhere else, at heart we are as scrappy as ever,” Russel says. “We continue a passionate belief every listener has the right and the need to understand the global economic forces that affect his or her life.”

Marketplace has won numerous awards over the past decade, including an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Silver Baton and a George Foster Peabody Award. The electronic magazine Media Life in June 2003 named Marketplace the “Best of the Best” in radio.