When Ray Hoffman began broadcasting the play-by-play of the financial markets, the Dow was standing at a mere 775. Four decades (and 40-some-thousand points) later, Ray's breezy-yet-insightful reports remain among the standards by which broadcast business and financial news is judged. 

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Tens of millions of listeners have heard Ray’s business-and-market commentaries on New York's WCBS Newsradio 880 --as well as such other notable outlets as WABC/New York, WINS/New York, WOR/New York, WBZ/Boston, WJR/Detroit, WLS/Chicago, WBAP/Fort Worth-Dallas, KTRH/Houston, KABC/Los Angeles, and KFWB/Los Angeles. His long-running daily WCBS feature, CEO Radio, was recognized by the New York Press Club as best radio business news report in both 2012 and 2015.

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Ray's a Penn State grad, born and raised in Pittsburgh. His first major market job was a four-year stay in Cleveland, during the period when station WERE was earning market-topping ratings with an all-news format. Coming to New York in 1981, Ray helped establish The Wall Street Journal's broadcast service.

 

After moving to BusinessWeek in 1986, the magazine's legendary editor-in-chief Steve Shepard named Ray "The Voice of BusinessWeek". For the next nearly twenty-one years, Ray represented the magazine on major radio stations from coast to coast, beginning with a first tour of duty --for five years-- on New York's (also legendary) WCBS. He also wrote occasional articles for the magazine, one of which is posted elsewhere on this website.

In 1995, as part of a BusinessWeek joint venture with the ABC Radio Networks, Ray became the morning voice of business and market news on more than 150 ABC affiliate stations. During this time he became a regular presence on Boston's WBZ Newsradio, as well as the long-running Paul W. Smith Show on WJR in Detroit.

After almost a dozen years on ABC, Ray came back to WCBS in 2006, this time for the Journal. CEO Radio (which also became a daily CBS Radio Network feature) started the next year and continued through 2022. Also, from 2017 to 2020, Ray hosted and produced 36 "This Is Capitalism" podcasts for Little Rock, Arkansas-based Stephens, Inc. 

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In 2023, Ray switched roles at WCBS and became a part-time news anchor. And on the final day of live news coverage on WCBS --it was Friday, August 23, 2024-- Ray was one of the last WCBS news anchors, simultaneously covering the news of that August 23rd while also paying tribute to WCBS's nearly 57-year run as the nation's premier all-news radio operation. Here's Ray's last half-hour, as published on Vimeo: