Stevie B no longer with ANN7

ANN7's business news anchor and anchor of BizSense, Stevie B, is no longer with ANN7.

He started anchoring at ANN7 on the last Monday of November last year and aimed to have a business show targeted to regular South Africans.

At the start of this month, Kaya FM announced that Stevie (real name Steven Bacher) would be leaving the station as he needed a new challenge after twelve years. For now, he has joined MixFM in Joburg and plans to launch his own radio station in the next ten years.

For now, ANN7 Prime anchor, Sindy Mabe, will continue to anchor BizSense, which airs immediately after ANN7 Prime at 8pm until a permanent replacement is found.

News Channels Unprepared As Zuma Unexpectedly Appoints a New, New Minister of Finance

With the extremely unexpected news this past Sunday of Pravin Gordhan replacing the new Minister of Finance, South African news channels showed their lack of staff on a Sunday to cover the breaking news.

When the news broke, eNCA did what they do with all their major breaking news stories: move the anchor over to the side of the studio used for News Night. eNCA had Thulasizwe Similane Skypping live from the highly unexpected presser and displaying eNCA's depth of talent at a time when news channels are understaffed at the weekend. However, soon they were back to their standard format, sports news and all.
Instead of going to a taped show at 10:30pm, eNCA added another live news bulletin to the schedule which included the first interview with DA leader Mmusi Maimane.

SABC news Channel had a reporter live from the event. However, not too long after the announcement, the channel was back to doing what they seem to do most days, showing social events, this time the NAFCOC dinner.

ANN7 has all sort of weird characters anchoring on the channel on the weekends, like prospective actors and celebrities and reality stars. So, at 10:20pm, ANN7 did something I have never seen before in all of my years of watching live news: they had a show anchored BY TELEPHONE when ANN7 Assignment's Editor,Cecilia Russel, replaced the highly inexperienced weekend anchor to anchor the channel's coverage of the breaking news. Her first guest was ANN7's new business editor, Stevie B, who was also on the phone, mind you. I do not like the sound of one person on a news broadcast speaking on the telephone, but to have both people on the screen doing a call in just does not sound nice.

Though the news channels showed strain with their lack of staff on a Sunday night for this kind of news, the business news channels were even worse. In fact, Business Day TV remained offline whilst CNBC Africa continued with their taped content, not even putting an on screen advisory on the screen.

ANN7 Launches New Prime Time Business Show

ANN7 this past Monday November 30th launched a new daily business news show, called BizSense.

The show airs weekdays at 8pm and is anchored by KayaFM's business news DJ, Stevie B.

Airing at 8pm also means that the excellent ANN7 Prime, anchored by Sebenzile Nkambule, loses television time.

ANN7 now joins the other news channels with daily business reports, eNCA has Moneyline, anchored by Siki Mgabadeli and airs at 8:30pm while SABC News Channel has Business Report, which is anchored by Francis Herd and airs at 6pm.

The show has promised to differentiate itself from the competitors by focusing on the consumer, in other words, exactly what their competitors are promising.

The channel had not programming advisory issued ahead of time, even though, quite strangely, they actually have a marketing department. I wonder what they have ever done.

I also do not get the whole purpose of starting a business news show on November 30th, the start of the festive season when the corporate world tends to cool down and be less newsworthy.

BizSense is, of course, not ANN7's first attempt at a daily business news show. Previously, they had Rands and Sense, which was anchored by Nastassia Arendse by what quietly removed from the schedule when she left the channel. Not bringing back the Rands and Sense brand is a smart move, even though it has been an ANN7 brand since inception, as SABC2 has a show with the same name on their schedule.

On a side note, I was reading Nastassia's Twitter feed a while ago and when asked if she missed television, she echoed what so many others said, no, they do not miss the egos at all.

BizSense's first guest was Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, and the main revelation of the first edition was that the earlier you book your fight or accommodation, the cheaper it is. I kid you not.