Now that CNBC is network non grata, guess who steps up to "fill the void" ...

[ColbertWatcher]

...From the Los Angeles Times
HOW I MADE IT: CODY WILLARD
A finance talk-show host with rock-star looks
Cody Willard, co-host of Fox Business Network's 'Happy Hour,' would hardly be mistaken for a pinstriped Wall Street drone. But he's got some serious financial credentials.
By Dawn C. Chmielewski
April 12, 2009

The gig: Co-host of Fox Business Network's "Happy Hour" show, which airs at 2 p.m. Pacific time weekdays from the Bull and Bear bar in New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. This is not your granddaddy's finance show. And Cody Willard, with his rock-star mane and rapid-fire banter, would hardly be mistaken for some pinstriped Wall Street drone. The show's calculatedly casual style and Main Street populism illustrate how the upstart Fox Business Network seeks to compete with the leading business channel, CNBC.

Cody, the early years: You might think the 36-year-old Willard is the most famous son of Ruidoso, N.M., a small town 120 miles south of Albuquerque. You'd be right -- if it weren't for Willard's childhood friend Neil Patrick Harris, best known as television's Doogie Howser and more recently costar of the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." Talk about tough competition for the limelight. "Having a best friend have such success at such an early age -- we were so competitive" Willard said. A friendly rivalry continues to this day. "The day I signed the contract with Fox, I was at home, doing nothing, waiting for Fox Business to start up. I wound up Regis and Kelly. And who's there but Neil Patrick Harris. He's still one-upping me."

(...)

Most embarrassing moment (on camera): "Happy Hour" attracts its share of actors, entrepreneurs and newsmakers, including such recent guests as Tesla Motors Chief Executive Elon Musk and Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens. But it was Willard's interview with an actress and former girlfriend, Jess Weixler, that stands out in his mind as the most embarrassing. She was booked as a guest on the show to talk about her role in the 2007 R-rated horror-comedy film "Teeth." But when the interview turned graphic, "I got completely flustered in the segment," he said. "I was blushing bright red at the end of it."

On being a hometown celebrity: Fox Business Network is carried by the cable television operator in Willard's hometown, where his rants about federal bailouts, stimulus packages and mortgage assistance programs have found an attentive following. But the most frequently heard comment from New Mexico? "Mostly, everybody from my hometown e-mails me telling me to cut my hair."

(you better believe there's more)

--Los Angeles Times

Another shining example of the journalism the GOP-controlled media devotes to stories about themselves.

Rah.