TV show hits pay dirt mining its own business.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: Carolina Business Review

A lot of people didn't believe there was enough business in North Carolina to fill a half-hour television show every week," says Chris William, his eyes closed as a makeup artist dabs at shadows under them. "I was surprised they felt that way."

He hops from his chair and strides down a hallway to a studio at Charlotte's WTVI public-television station. He pauses in front of a teleprompter, fiddling with his tie while rehearsing his introduction. Before he finishes, his cast arrives - two economists who constitute this week's panel, followed by the guest, John Taylor, head of Greenville, S.C.-based Moovies Inc.

They settle into easy chairs around a coffee table, as associate producer Tamela Rich flicks a hair from Taylor's collar. "We've got a dog," he notes. In the dark control room, director Gary Morris counts down, "four, three, two ..."

Then, as it has for some 250 times since 1991, Carolina Business Review takes the air.

In less than six years, William, an Interstate/Johnson Lane stock-broker who is the show's producer and host, has expanded it from a local showcase for Charlotte businesses into a spotlight on commerce throughout the Carolinas. Two years ago, South Carolina Educational TV began carrying it, and North Carolina educational radio stations picked up the audio feed. A year ago, the UNC Center for Public Television added it to the Tar Heel public network. Now William, 39, is thinking of taking it national.

Carolina Business Review is wholly owned by William's production company, which gets $300,000 a year from Interstate/Johnson Lane, Sonoco Products Co. and Duke Power Co. BMW and Transamerica Reinsurance Co. also contribute. William's company schedules guests and tapes the show, then pays WTVI to air it and satellite-broadcast it to other stations. William says he makes a small profit.

The show has overcome uneasiness about whether a privately underwritten business program should appear on public television, and it has gained respect by drawing such guests as Hugh McColl, NationsBank Corp. CEO. Along the way, William has diplomatically handled one chief executive who showed up, drink in hand, "feeling pretty good." He still sweats through interviews with executives who are witty and charming until cameras roll, then lapse into wooden techno-talk.

There are light moments. Like when his production crew couldn't get a camera angle over a tall sports executive. "He's sitting on his wallet," the executive's wife quipped. There...