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[...]when he joined the new "Nightly Business Report" as a stock commentator on a South Florida public television station, WPBT, in 1979, there was no other program like it on the air. "Nightly Business Report," which eventually spread to 250 public television stations, was at one point the most-watched evening business news program in the country. In addition to golf, Mr. Kangas spent his off-air time playing with a ham radio or playing guitar.
Paul Kangas, a stockbroker who helped pioneer television's first daily business news show, died on Tuesday in Miami. He was 79.
His death, after a long illness, was confirmed by Mark Elieff, his stepson.
With 24-hour cable stations now airing nonstop business and economic coverage, the uniqueness of Mr. Kangas's early reports may be hard to recapture. But when he joined the new "Nightly Business Report" as a stock commentator on a South Florida public television station, WPBT, in 1979, there was no other program like it on the air.
"He started broadcasting the stock market at a time when you had to wait until the next morning to get a stock price unless you were a broker, and stock prices were reported in fractions, not decimals," said Tom Hudson, who became the program's anchor after Mr. Kangas retired in 2009.
"Nightly Business Report," which eventually spread to 250 public television stations, was at one point the most-watched evening business news program in the country. Mr. Kangas became a co-anchor in 1990.
"He had that booming voice and great laugh," said Linda O' Bryon, the creator of the program and Mr. Kangas's co-anchor. "He was the hardest-working person I ever saw."
His signature signoff -- "Wishing all of you the best of good buys" -- was familiar to amateur investors and Washington elites, as was his slicked-back hair.
Fans would call him after the telecast to check a closing price or a tip. One day in 1998, when the show was being taped in Philadelphia, Ms. O'Bryon recalled, Mr. Kangas sneaked out of the studio to play golf. As he was waiting at the tee, she said, a man came up to tell him that he recognized him from his TV reports. It was former President George H. W. Bush.
Mr. Kangas, who worked without a script, was known for his rapid-fire delivery. "He could go through those stocks so fast that the people who did the closed captioning couldn't keep up with him," Ms. O'Bryon said.
Mr. Kangas was born on April 14, 1937, in Houghton, Mich., and graduated from the University of Michigan before working as a stockbroker in Miami. His biggest client, the owner of the local CBS radio affiliate, WINZ, asked him to do a wrap-up segment, which turned into a regular job. It was those radio broadcasts that first brought him to the attention of television producers.
He became such a fixture that The Detroit Free Press once labeled him "the Walter Cronkite of business broadcasting."
In addition to golf, Mr. Kangas spent his off-air time playing with a ham radio or playing guitar. Mr. Elieff remembered long dinners by the pool, drinking martinis as his stepfather serenaded him and his mother with "Barnacle Bill the Sailor."
In addition to Mr. Elieff, Mr. Kangas is survived by a step-granddaughter. His wife, the former Peni Angeloff, died in 2010.
Before his retirement, he said in an interview that other business news outlets, like CNBC, "all started mimicking us."
"But as my wife, who is an artist, says," he added, "the original is always the best."
Paul Kangas Became a Mainstay On "Nightly Business Report." (Photograph by Nightly Business Report)
Copyright New York Times Company Mar 3, 2017