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KIRK KAZANJIAN<br />
Of all the financial shows on television today, and there are many,<br />
Wall $treet Week is unquestionably the most powerful and influential.<br />
It’s every portfolio manager’s dream to be asked on as a guest. Among<br />
other things, an appearance on the show can lead to hundreds of<br />
millions of dollars in new assets. Its following is that strong. The impact<br />
that other financial programs and cable networks such as CNBC<br />
and CNNfn have on viewers doesn’t <strong>com</strong>pare. Stovall knows this<br />
firsthand. He’s been on almost every national investment show around.<br />
“People really don’t take you seriously unless you’re on Wall $treet<br />
Week,” he says. “I think that’s because it is a serious show with clear<br />
continuity. For example, if you make a mistake in answering a question,<br />
people will write in or call. If Louis catches it, he’ll make you<br />
apologize and correct it on your next appearance. By contrast, I can<br />
go on the major networks and say almost anything and no one will<br />
even give a darn, since they’re so used to inaccuracies. We also reach<br />
a much larger audience. CNN’s excellent Moneyline show gets one<br />
million domestic viewers at the most. Louis says Wall $treet Week’s<br />
viewership is around ten million. It’s a very powerful program. The<br />
age of our average viewer is around 55. Interestingly enough, about<br />
a third of them don’t even invest. They just watch the show for its<br />
information, camaraderie, and humor.”<br />
FAMILY LIFE<br />
Stovall and his wife have four children. Their eldest, Sten (rhymes<br />
with Dean), is a London-based political/economic journalist and<br />
global financial editor for Reuters. From 1991 to 1997, he was also<br />
the European correspondent for the PBS program Nightly Business<br />
Report. Their next son, Sam, followed in his dad’s footsteps by be<strong>com</strong>ing<br />
an investment analyst, speaker, and writer for Standard & Poor’s<br />
in New York. Daughter Benedikte, the only single one of the bunch,<br />
works as a speech language therapist in Sarasota, Florida. And their<br />
youngest son, Robert, Jr., is an advertising executive based in Fort<br />
Lee, New Jersey. The Stovall’s kids have collectively given them five<br />
grandchildren so far.<br />
The Stovall’s also have an extended family of two Cuban political<br />
refugees whom they raised for six years until their birth parents could<br />
flee their native land. “They were with us from 1962 to 1968, and we<br />
still get together for at least one family reunion each year,” Stovall<br />
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