Wall Street, Play by Play

Of all the things television does badly, the stock market may be the worst. Despite the fact that 24 million Americans now own stocks, TV coverage of the market is almost universally restricted to a brief and bewildering recital of the Dow-Jones averages and the ten most active stocks. But now, from the never-never land of UHF comes a startling switch. Eight U.S. TV stations, most of them new, have gone on the air with a play-by-play account of market transactions from open to close, Monday through Friday.

Originated 18 months ago by Los Angeles' Channel 22 ("The Station That Means Business"), the programs run nonstop for six to eight hours, as computerized figures sweep constantly across the picture, reproducing the tapes of both the New York and American Stock Exchanges. Behind the figures, an announcer or a licensed stockbroker answers telephone inquiries from viewers and delivers a running commentary on market trends, business news and transactions on local exchanges.

The comments are not uniformly en lightened. Houston's Channel 16, which began broadcasting only two months ago, hired a former science reporter and a dark-haired young actress to keep its audience informed. "We are only now at the point," admits the show's M.C. Jeff Thompson, "where we can spot trends and correlate what is happening." There are other dangers involved. To avoid SEC charges of stock manipulation, all stations forbid their commentators from paying particular attention to any single stock. They also discourage their employees from playing the market. Says News Director

Ben Larsen of Chicago's Channel 26: "I sold out all my stocks when we started. I'm scared to death of someone accusing me of jockeying a stock."

So far, the exchange programs seem to be accomplishing their intended purpose: to attract a marketable audience for potential advertisers. The fare obviously appeals to a large number of elderly people who otherwise would have to trudge downtown to the broker's office to watch the tape, although some studies show that the average viewer earns about $15,000 a year and is between 38 and 45 years of age.

So enthusiastic is the audience that country clubs now keep their sets tuned to the market action, as do expensive bars, barbershops, beauty salons and doctors' offices. The most ebullient response, however, comes from businessmen's wives who suddenly find that they can talk intelligently about the market with their husbands. One overwhelmed Dallas woman recently wrote Channel 39 that "your stock-market show is the greatest thing that has happened to me since sex." And Seattle's Channel 13, which because of the time difference begins its Wall Street report at 7 a.m., received a telephone call from a housewife who said that "for the first time in 17 years, I had breakfast with my husband this morning."

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