A toast to Anchorwoman Kim

If you work on a Canadian trading desk or in a brokerage field office, you know who I’m talking about. Today is Kim Parlee’s last day as a host of BNN Business News Network’s Business Day. She is going to be missed as a part of the daily fabric in the lives of everyone on Bay and Howe Streets. Not to mention all of the public company CEOs who’ve benefited from her professional, guiding hand during their live interviews over the years.

I did my first live interview on BNN during the summer of 2007. The credit crisis wasn’t yet in full force, but Howard Green and I spent some time hashing out the tougher corporate credit market. At some point thereafter, Kim had me on SqueezePlay, and our co-host slot yesterday at 3pm marked the 5th year we’ve been tackling issues for her audience. Eventually it went from being stressful to fun, which is entirely a function of Kim’s aplomb with we amateurs.

Kim’s success as a business broadcaster is easily understood when you know the bio: an undergrad in Commerce, an MBA, plus time working with conglomerates as well as at a Toronto-based venture start-up. But a lot of people have MBAs and they can’t quite handle the pressure, nay hampster wheel, of continuous live television. Big Cap corporate CEOs and CFOs get asked to do media all the time, and they have their choice of who they’ll “go on with”. Not to mention an overarching concern that by agreeing to go on air, you’ll be castigated like a schoolboy if you’ve just missed the quarterly earnings number.

Kim’s inate knowledge of business is easily seen, and lends much credibility to each segment, but what made her good at business television was her ability to ask tough questions without sending CEOs running for the hills; never to return. Unlike a magazine piece, a television interview doesn’t sit on your coffee table for a month. But Kim’s professionalism meant that she wanted each segment to stand the test of time; which made it dangerous for we “featured guests” each week. You couldn’t just come on air and babble.

BNN has launched many a successful career: Janis Mackey Frayer is excelling as Asian Bureau Chief for CTV. Amanda Lang is a regular feature on CBC’s Evening News and Canada’s highest profile business television journalist. And our friend Kevin O’Leary turned his BNN airtime into a unique and lucrative gig of reality television, mutual fund hawking and wine making. After 11 years on BNN, it’s no surprise that the TD Bank wanted Kim for their own business plan. A loss for BNN’s viewers, but great news I suppose for the TD stake held by the Decade of Daddy Mirror Fund (see prior post “Decade of Daddy Mirror Fund Annual Report #4” Aug 15-12).

Naturally, the show must go on, and the brilliant Andy Bell will now have even more time on camera. BNN management have done a great job of late bringing in new talent with the right pedigree for business television. The station will continue to thrive.

After 13 months of joining Kim every Thurday afternoon to talk the issues of the day, I’m going to take my leave from the treadmill, too. We’ve had lots of fun, but the commitment is real. Our firm has just raised a new fund (see prior post “Wellington Financial Announces $177 Million Fund IV” Sept 5-12), and planning conference calls around a TV slot always seemed a bit too self-important.

Best of luck to Kim in the new career. Bay Street appreciated your decade on air!

MRM