Business Students Storm Broadcasting World with “Morning Market Call”

Greg Lee interviews Julie Nelson and Christopher Bryant
during a Webisode of “Morning Market Call.”PROVO, Utah – Jul 10, 2009 – Cue the intro, dim the lights and...action! Beginning last October, the Graduate Finance Association made a splash into the world of broadcasting with their student-run show, "Morning Market Call." With students planning, producing and anchoring the show, the grassroots operation has come a long way from its initial episodes filmed in a dimly lit Marriott School conference room to the professional studio of the BYU Communications Department.

During its seven-month run, the show produced 82 episodes and featured more than 100 faculty and student guests. Morning Market Call's Web site, mmc.byu.edu, had hits from more than 20 countries and territories.

For Christian Hsieh, a second-year MBA student from Taipei, Taiwan and the creative mind behind the show, the success of the "Morning Market Call" is remarkable considering its small beginning.

"I came up with the idea of having some sort of morning market meeting every day for MBA finance students after my internship with an investment bank. We had daily morning meetings talking about what's happening in the market and the economy as well as our strategy for the day," Hsieh says.

The idea morphed from a simple morning briefing into a broadcasted production.  Knowing it would be a difficult undertaking, the idea still appealed to Grant McQueen, finance professor and faculty adviser to the Graduate Finance Association.

"The two parts of the student's pitch that resonated with me were first, that "Morning Market Call" would require students to keep current on issues related to the economy, capital markets and individual companies, and second, the show could raise the visibility of BYU's finance program, which typically leads to better job placement," the finance professor explains.

In fact, participating students gained valuable communication and business skills, making the program well worth the effort and money required to produce it. With only a shoe-string budget, most of the labor and studio time were donated. The "Morning Market Call" team hopes that next year will bring more funding as well as an improved production.

This summer, McQueen is researching similar programs at other universities and learning from them. Some changes are already in the works for next year's show. The format will be slightly tweaked and will include three faculty-appointed anchors. The team also wants to involve more students and faculty in the project.

"We plan to involve more students from the very beginning to make the program more robust," says Greg Lee, member of the Graduate Finance Association and one of next year's anchors.  "In the past the content committee mostly approached MBA students and faculty to invite their participation, but we hope to have so many students involved next year that it will be more of a ‘first-come, first-served' process."

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school's mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School's graduate and undergraduate programs.