WSW: Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Summary & Discussion $treet: 'Wall St. Week,' a PBS Staple, Will Go Off the Air in June

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'Wall St. Week,' a PBS Staple, Will Go Off the Air in June

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/24/busine...

By NAT IVES

Published: March 24, 2005

Wall Street Week," which became one of the most-watched programs on public television over 35 years, has been canceled. Maryland Public Television, the program's producer, and PBS, which distributes it to member stations, plan to announce today that the program will be broadcast for the last time on June 24.

The cancellation comes three years after the program's creator and longtime host, Louis Rukeyser, was removed as part of an effort to attract a bigger, younger audience.

What had been "Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser" became a joint production with Fortune magazine and was renamed "Wall Street Week with Fortune." Since the program's reintroduction, its hosts have been Geoffrey Colvin, the editorial director of Fortune, and Karen Gibbs, who was previously a senior business correspondent for Fox News.

The split with Mr. Rukeyser was acrimonious, upsetting longtime viewers. After Mr. Rukeyser's ouster, 22 analysts and money managers who made regular appearances alongside him said they would not take part in a program without him.

Mr. Rukeyser, who spoke bluntly of his anger at being removed, began a program on CNBC called "Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street" that competed with his former program. The CNBC program ended in December after Mr. Rukeyser became ill.

Over its long run, "Wall Street Week" averaged more than a million viewers. For many years, before 24-hour cable television and channels devoted entirely to business news, the program was sometimes thought of as the only game in town for investors who wanted to watch informed discussion of the markets, the economy and financial issues.

Mr. Rukeyser became known for his puns, quips and groaners delivered in a plummy voice. He also became known for his "elves," technical analysts who tried to predict the direction of the stock market. The panelists on the program, some of whom stayed on for years, became celebrities of a sort on Wall Street, as did some of Mr. Rukeyser's regular guests.

Larry Hoffman, a spokesman for Maryland Public Television, and Jan McNamara, a spokeswoman for P.B.S., did not respond to phone messages left late yesterday. Carrie Welch, a spokeswoman at Fortune, also did not respond to a phone message.

Stuart Elliott contributed reporting for this article.

-- posted by Kirk