RAY HOFFMAN,
the voice of BusinessWeek
When Ray Hoffman began broadcasting the play-by-play of the financial markets, the Dow was at a lowly 775. Today, more than two decades (and several thousand points) later, Ray’s breezy-yet-insightful reports are among the standards by which business and financial news is judged.
Every week, several million listeners (in their cars, kitchens, and showers) hear Ray’s BusinessWeek-ABC Radio reports on a network of more than 150 stations coast-to-coast…including such major outlets as WABC in New York, WBAP In Dallas-Fort Worth, WJR in Detroit, and the ABC News and Talk Channel on XM and Sirius Satellite Radio.
A Penn State grad, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Ray broke into broadcasting in the ‘70s in State College, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio. His first major market job was a four-year stay in Cleveland, as a reporter, newscaster, talk-show host and managing editor of the morning-drive news program on WERE. Coming to New York in 1981, Ray helped establish The Wall Street Journal’s broadcast service. He moved to BusinessWeek in 1986, broadcasting initially on the Westinghouse all-news stations (WINS in New York, KYW in Philadelphia, WBZ in Boston) before embarking on a highly popular, five-year, twice-an-hour run for BusinessWeek on New York’s all-news WCBS.
That led directly to the formation of the BusinessWeek-ABC Network, which took to the air in January 1995. The success of the BW-ABC joint venture can be measured by the fact that within six months, the roster of stations hit 150 (including 5 of the 10 largest markets), when the network business programming it replaced had not been heard in any of the top 50 markets for several years! Today, more than a decade later, the vast majority of those initial affiliates are still affiliates.
The BusinessWeek Report with Ray Hoffman (and Gary Nunn in the afternoon) airs live at :24 minutes after the hour on the ABC News and Talk Channel. The New York broadcasts on WABC are carried live at the bottom of the hour, the Texas Business Reports on WBAP air live at :27 after the hour in morning drive, and the live morning broadcasts on WJR in Detroit are scheduled around the quarter-hour mark in the 6:00 and 7:00 hours.