WJR Business Beat: Business Biography to Debut (Live Episode 356)

Paul: All right. It is 7:12, and it’s time for our usual report, our Business Beat, our WJR Business Beat. And I have some good news. I have some big news that will break tomorrow as we celebrate we’re very close to our 100-year anniversary at WJR. And for those of you who’ve been around a very long time, you’ll remember the name Oscar Frenette. After that, not so long ago, Tom Campbell and what these two excellent gentlemen have in common was they hosted WJR’s Business Biography. And I’m happy to say that Business Biography is back, starting tomorrow at one o’clock and the fabulous host of Business Biography is WJR’s Jeff Sloan. Good morning, Jeff.

Jeff: Wow. What an honor, Paul. It’s really, really exciting for me. It’s great.

Paul: It’s our honor to bestow this very hallowed position and to bring back something very important to our WJR listeners and it’s Business Biography, business information that we can all understand and we can all benefit from. And it’ll start at one o’clock tomorrow, but it’s, it’s, it’s great. And it fits in beautifully with our coming 100th-year anniversary, Jeff. Yeah.

Jeff: You know, Paul, the thing that I love about it, I mean, first of all, I grew up with the show. I was inspired by the show. I think actually part of the reason I became an entrepreneur is hearing those great, inspiring stories of entrepreneurs who toiled away and overcame all the challenges associated with creating a business and making it a success.

I remember thinking, you know, I love these stories. I want to do that. And most of us think of businesses as the numbers, you know, how much money is this guy or this gal worth, or, you know, how much, how big is this business? How many people does it employ and all those things are important, of course, but the story, the biography, everybody loves a great story. Everybody loves a great biography, the story behind the business, how did it happen? What was the genesis? Uh, how did they overcome the challenges?

Those are the things that we’ll cover on the Business Biography. I find them really interesting. The stories ranging from sole proprietor entrepreneurs all the way on up to the boardrooms of the big companies in our regions, well, in our regional area, we’ll cover them all. And I’m excited to do that.

You know, Paul, if I could, Dick Haefner called me and had this to say, he wanted to make sure I knew how important this show was, Paul, and so he called me yesterday. Dick Haefner had this to say about Business Biography.

Dick: There wasn’t any show quite like it anywhere on TV or radio in our market, or actually anywhere else that I know of where we, Tom Campbell and myself, thought that it would be a good idea to get businesspeople on, ask them questions about their business and their lives. And just shut up and let them tell their stories.

Jeff: So my job is to shut up and let the businesspeople tell their stories, Paul.

Paul: Vintage Dick Haefner. I’m glad he’s, I’m glad he’s still on the air with this and, and behind the scenes as well. And I’m glad you’re on the air and have been now, how long have you been on WJR?

Jeff: You know, it’s been since 2003. So now coming up on 20 years, spend it quite a, quite a joy and quite an honor, Paul, good to share the airwaves.

Paul: Well, it’s our honor. And, uh, as we get ready to celebrate our 100th anniversary coming up this May 4th, um, there’s going to be a celebration all year long, of course. And it begins again tomorrow. One o’clock on WJR appointment radio. Don’t miss Business Biography with WJR’s Jeff Sloan. Break a leg, Jeff.

Jeff: Thank you, Paul.

Paul: As we continue on WJR at 7:17.