Interesting piece on Cody Willard, co-host of Fox Business News' "Happy Hour," along with Rebecca Gomez. I confess I didn't know much about Cody, other than his fabulous Fabio-like hair. And yet why not, The Cable Gamer wants to know? Why shouldn't the male anchors be just a bit on the dreamy side. I know a lotta girls who would be happy to spend an hour with Cody!
Cody is from New Mexico, before making a fortune on Wall Street, and then turning to TV. This feature profile piece, appearing in The Albuquerque Journal,is lamentably behind a subscription wall, but here it is, "Ruidoso Native Cody Willard Is the Talk of Wall Street" because the piece, by Tracy Dingmann, is pretty interesting, and information wants to be free! (Ruidoso, btw, is a about 100 miles south of ABQ.)
Every evening at 5, lanky former Lobo basketball player Cody Willard bellies up to the bar, schmoozing about the just-concluded markets on Wall Street with anyone who will listen.
But Willard isn't just some schmo— the New Mexico native is the host of "Happy Hour" on the new Fox Business Network, a show broadcast live across the country every evening from the storied Bull and Bear tavern at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in midtown Manhattan.
The playful yet informative show features the outgoing Willard and his dishy co-host, Rebecca Gomez, as they interview guests ranging from celebrity chefs to porn stars to actual financial experts. Since its debut this past September, the exuberant "Happy Hour" has drawn raves from the normally brutal New York media.
The show— and Willard specifically— also have elicited positive buzz from the Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, The New York Times and Gawker.com.
Newsweek magazine, citing the youth, good looks and general rowdiness of the "Happy Hour" hosts, suggested the new Fox network should be called "Foxy Business News."
There is a decidedly youth-oriented aspect to "Happy Hour," a look that wasn't achieved by accident, says Willard, 35.
"The six people who produce the show are 32 years and younger. The team is a young team, and it really stands out on the air."
More specifically, says Willard, "I'm surrounded by beautiful women all day, every day."
From bench to star
Not bad for a Ruidoso native who rode the bench for one miserable year as a walk-on under former University of New Mexico coach Dave Bliss.
So how did Willard rebound so nicely from his less-than-stellar college basketball career?
He took his degree in economics from UNM and ran with it. After graduating in 1996, Willard moved to New York and starting working for the money management firm Oppenheimer & Co.
In 2002 he launched his own sucessful money management company, CL Willard Capital, which quickly drew the attention of high-profile Wall Streeters. Willard was asked to write a monthly investment column for The Financial Times and TheStreet.com and was a regular guest on CNBC's "Kudlow & Company"— the host of which, Lawrence Kudlow, jokingly dubbed Willard "the James Dean of Telecom."
Willard was young, rich and smart— and then he got his own TV show.
"For the last 11 years, I feel like I've been on scholarship for the first time in my life," says Willard in a recent telephone interview from New York, contrasting his experience as a walk-on basketball player at UNM.
The Midas touch
It does appear Willard is living a charmed life. He lives in a giant artist's loft with tin ceilings in the heart of SoHo, surrounded by upscale shops and restaurants. He has put his money management career on hold for now— but it looks like the chance he took on a television career has paid off. Willard confesses he still can't believe the show has attracted such positive attention.
"You know, I've got to be waiting for that shoe to drop at some point," he says. "At some point, I've got to do something wrong. The media has been very nice to me."
Willard says he's at a loss to explain his appeal, but the consensus among TV critics seems to be that he grabs people's attention with his offbeat looks and exuberance, then wins their trust with his candor and expertise.
"What I strive to bring to the table is just the Ruidoso attitude of just calling it like I see it and being open and honest about any topic," he told the Journal.
Basketball bummer
Willard is proud to be from New Mexico and still keeps close ties to Ruidoso, where his parents live. His father, Lynn, runs the Ruidoso Animal Clinic there.
"It's a 30-year growth business. It's always made money— it's never had a down year," says Willard proudly.
His mother, Donna, teaches English to seniors at his alma mater, Ruidoso High School, and "is the gatekeeper to getting out of town," he jokes.
Willard isn't so proud of being a Lobo under Bliss, who Willard says he feels was "not forthright" with him.
According to UNM records, Willard played a total of seven minutes in five games. He doesn't hold back about Bliss in his regular blog, CodyWillard.com.
Because of his disgust with his experience, Willard says he has never watched another college basketball game.
For someone who attracts so much attention from the ladies, Willard has nothing serious to report in that department.
"I've had great girlfriends over the years and they never worked out," he says. "We have beautiful women on the show constantly, and people are always asking, 'When are you going to ask out one of the guests?' So far I've gone two months without asking anyone out. You can pretty much ask most people. I've never been a player."
It can't last forever
So what does Willard see in his future?
"I still have my money management company but I recognize that I can't do an objective news show and still have skin in the game in that way," he says. "Plus, you can't manage money unless you're bleeding for it every day. And I can't manage money every day if I have a TV show."
Willard says he would like things to slow down a bit and doesn't think of being on television as a long-term profession.
"I also need a life," he says. "It would be nice to slow things down. I have a three-year contract with Fox, but I don't control my destiny here in many ways. They're my bosses now. I'm working for the man.
"If this thing falls apart, if TV is not for me, I'm coming home to Ruidoso to coach high school basketball."
