CNBC Asia’s dynamic duo

SINGAPORE – They’re young, likeable and quick-on-the-draw with their wit and humor. They’re highly knowledgeable in the field of business and finance, and have that rare gift of making potentially intimidating business data understandable and useful for their viewers.

They’re CNBC Asia anchormen Rico Hizon and Bernard "Bernie" Lo, two of the reasons more and more Asians are tuning in to the respected news and financial network.

CNBC Asia CEO Scott Goodfellow says that choosing the right people to go on air is "easily the hardest thing that we do. Clearly, we need people who are smart and understand business. It’s absolutely critical that every anchor on air is highly competent."

Filipino viewers have seen first-hand since June of this year – when Entertainment Network led by its CEO Greg Garcia made possible the airing in the Philippines of CNBC Asia over Zoe Broadcasting Network Inc.’s Channel 11 – how Rico and Bernie have lived up to what Scott describes as "what will work best."

Filipinos in particular have good reason to be proud of Rico Hizon, resident anchor of Market Watch and Power Lunch, and co-anchor of CNBC Today, because he is only one of three Filipino anchors (the others are CNN’s Veronica Pedrosa and Bloomberg Tokyo’s Cathy Yang) in the international broadcasting scene.

Instead of being asked for his autograph, Rico shares, "Whenever people recognize me they ask me for investment advice. Kami naman, hindi showbiz, di ba? They just come up to me and say, ‘Thank you very much Rico. Itayo mo ang bandera ng Pilipinas!’ I really feel good about that."

Fortunately, Rico still has his feet firmly planted on the ground, thanks in large part to his parents who he telephones at least twice a week and visits every chance he gets. They always remind him, Rico says, that he is not indispensable.

Rico adds that his faith has also served him in good stead. Not surprising coming from one who was an active Eucharistic minister, commentator and choir member in his parish during his younger years.

But even more than having gotten their feet in, thriving as anchorpersons for over six years now makes Rico and Bernie’s feat even more remarkable.

While the duo may epitomize professionalism and confidence onscreen, it is actually how they are off screen that makes one appreciate their appeal. On the one hand the two are distinctly their own persons ("By the time Squawk Box is over I’ve had 10 cups of coffee," Bernie says. "Rico doesn’t drink caffeine") but on the other hand they’re two peas who share a lot more than their CNBC pod and a happy marital status.

For one thing, 35-year-old Rico and 36-year-old Bernie just try to be themselves onscreen. Rico cites an example. "My advantage," he says, "is my accent. I don’t pretend to have a British or American accent. People tell me, ‘You’ve still maintained your Filipino-English accent through the years even though you’ve been exposed to British and American handlers. You don’t try to put up a front’."

Bernie says, "Whenever I anchor, I just try to be myself. Sometimes I lean on the table, twirl my pen. I want the viewers to be comfortable with me."

Another striking commonality: Rico and Bernie possess an endearingly irreverent sense of humor which they’re only too willing to use on each other – if not on themselves. They’re fun enough to whip out a razzing, yet game enough to be at the receiving end of one, too.

There’s nothing humbug or pompous about these guys, even if they’re darn good at what they do. Rico and Bernie enjoy others and enjoy themselves, an irrepressible quality that shines on the TV screen and is sensed by viewers.

Rico notes, "I just naturally smile a lot. I like to make people happy in the morning. People tell me, ‘Rico, at 6 o clock in the morning you’re smiling and cheery’!"

Before we interview Bernie, Rico jokes to this writer and another journalist, "Tell Bernie I didn’t join you because I’m sick of him! And you can quote me on that, too!"

We relay the message word for word to Bernie, who feigns shock and laughs, "He said that?" Bernie later gets the chance to get even when we tell him that since he dreams of becoming a David Letterman, Rico can well play Paul Shaffer.

"I don’t think he’d go for that," Bernie reckons. "He could be Alan Calter; he could be my announcer." Why, that’s the guy who always gets beaten up in the show, we say. "I’d take a lot of pleasure in seeing that (done to Rico)!" Bernie laughs.

"Rico is a good Catholic boy, you see," Bernie jokes. "He doesn’t get down and dirty. He’s just a good, clean boy." And Bernie Lo? "The opposite! I’m a bad non-Catholic boy!"

Seriously, though, Bernie believes that humor does serve a useful purpose in business news. He should know – humor is one reason Squawk Box has attracted viewers.

"Humor softens the hard edges to news," he notes, "and hardens the soft edges to news. It gives you variety, it gives you some ups and downs, a chance to step back and laugh at yourself and realize that what may seem serious can go away."

"Three hours (of Squawk Box ) is too long to go straight with hard-core business news. We tell jokes, we lighten up, we try to be info-tainment as well as news. But we’re pretty sensitive to our audience, too. I mean, if they wake up at 7 a.m. to watch TV, they’re not there for jokes. They probably work for finance or something and need to be at work by 8 o’clock. So we get the hard news out of the way."

A sense of not taking oneself too seriously also prevails when either of the two inevitably commits a mistake. "I make bloopers everyday," Rico admits. "It’s just a matter of knowing how to veil them. You should know how to handle mistakes."

When his mind does go blank, Bernie jests, "(I’ll say) ‘Yeah, ok, back to you!’ or ‘We’re going to commercial’."

Their cheerful dispositions, however, don’t mean that Rico and Bernie are wont to take it easy. Never taking things for granted, the two take pains to personally prepare for their daily programs.

"It can wear you down, doing this kind of a job," Bernie shares. "This is not very forgiving. You’re only as good as your last show. You can never rest, take a break, just lay back and enjoy your conquests."

"For me, everyday going to work is like going to school," Rico believes. "You learn something new either from the people you talk to or your colleagues about style and content. I never take anything for granted.

"When I talk to a head of state or a CEO, I just look at it as a conversation. I’m curious; I have to know about a particular issue. Of course, before that I do my own research. I also have to be prepared."

"What’s important," Rico emphasizes, "is you know what you’re doing. Then they’ll respect you."

Bernie elaborates, "What’s nice is that over the years I’ve cultivated a lot of contacts and sources so when I go in (on air), I’ve got lists of things to look out for. But I still have to research them myself, check out what the news is, make sure I understand."

Preparation to Bernie necessarily includes anticipating his viewers’ expectations. "Be curious," he stresses. "Have an urge to learn and don’t do it for yourself. There’s nothing worse than somebody on TV who does something for himself. You try to transpose yourself, try to imagine yourself at home watching in the context of the viewer.

"What do they expect to hear? What do they want to hear? Why are they not tuned to another station? You have to transgress a bit and adapt to what other peoples’ viewpoints might be. Don’t ever do a story for yourself. Once you do that, you’re dead."

An anchor’s job, Bernie adds, also requires excellent listening skills. "You have to follow up and ask relevant questions."

Rico echoes the observation. "In three hours," he says, "you have about 24 segments. You have to make it a point that you’re not repeating a question."

Their solid educational backgrounds – the Vancouver-born, Oregon-raised Bernie has a Master’s degree in Finance and Arts Administration; Rico has a Broadcast Journalism degree – attests to this. So do years of learning directly from the trenches of reporting – Bernie with Hong Kong’s Asian TV and Rico with the Philippines’ GMA 7.

Bernie and Rico are highly disciplined, too, a quality reflected in their faithfulness to grueling schedules.

"Usually I’m in the office by 3:30 a.m.," Rico says. "My first show is at 6 a.m. I have a show at 10 a.m. and then I have a lunch time show at 12:00. I usually get out of the office at 1:30 or 2 in the afternoon. I can only sleep for four hours. Sometimes I sleep at 10 or 11 p.m., then wake up at 3:00. I’m at the office before 4 a.m."

Bernie even jests that his "greatest contribution to CNBC" is "Getting up and going in in ungodly hours! Nobody’s dying to do my shift – I can guarantee that!" Between him and Rico, he reckons, "I think we probably put in 12-hour days in five or six hours in terms of the pace of our work."

Which is not to say that the two are complaining. "I love my job!" Rico gushes. "I don’t really think there’s a hard part about being a CNBC anchor. If you really enjoy what you’re doing, nothing is difficult." And who wouldn’t think that if one had the chance, like Rico has had, to interview everyone from presidents like Malaysian President Mahathir and former President Estrada to tennis greats like Bjorn Borg and Gabriela Sabatini?

Bernie goes so far as to say that he is enjoying himself so much, he can’t even tell what he’ll do next. "Sometimes when I think about going to an office and doing a desk job," he says, "or when I’m having a real bad day and it’s demanding, (I think) how pleasurable it would be to have a corner office and sit by myself and type away. Most of the time I tell myself, ‘No. I don’t want to do that. I’m having fun’."

Rico’s delight in his job seems all the more satisfying because it is the fulfillment of his childhood dream. "I wanted to be a reporter even in grade school," he says.

Bernie’s foray into broadcasting, on the other hand, came by "accident".

"I was a semi-professional violinist, a second-tier professional with an orchestra in the US but I wasn’t good enough to make a living out of it so I thought, ‘Well, I still want to be in music, arts, so why don’t I get an education focused on managing art or art administration?’ I was originally thinking I was going to manage a symphony orchestra or an opera company."

When he realized that his prospects of working for a Hong Kong arts organization were bleak, Bernie "bummed around a little bit in Hong Kong," then got in as a reporter in Asian TV.

One day, Bernie recalls, "We had a business editor who quit suddenly. They needed somebody in the business news and nobody knew business news. I was the only one. I went in and the boss said ‘Okay’."

Bernie is grateful he got into business news. "Every kid who’s in Journalism school dreams of the glamour of doing network news, being a Dan Rather or a Peter Jennings or a Tom Brokaw," he says. "There’s so much competition to do that kind of news.

"Business news is something I understand, something I think I’m pretty good at. And you don’t have people knocking down the door dying to do your job. Because it is a lot of work."

Satisfying job and all, Rico still feels he still has a lot to learn. He is planning to take Masteral studies either in Journalism, Foreign Service or Government in the US in 2004, when his CNBC contract expires. "I want to expand my horizon and see what the possibilities are out there," he explains.

Those courses appeal to Rico who was "in the student council in grade school, high school and college. I was president of my batch, I was the treasurer of my class, I was also the president of my batch in the College of Liberal Arts. When I was asked to run I would say ‘yes’ and try to serve my batch."

With the proliferation of channels these days, one asks Bernie Lo point-blank: Why should we watch CNBC?

"You’re right, there are a lot of channels," Bernie replies. "That’s exactly why you’d want to watch CNBC. Because we can take the same thing and dish it up in a way that you’ll not only learn from, but you’ll also enjoy watching."

He may have said it as a joke earlier on, but one is also inclined to agree with Bernie in another respect: A good reason to watch CNBC Asia is because Rico Hizon and Bernie Lo are in it.

And because they are, we the viewers certainly can – as the CNBC motto goes – "profit from it."