The Financial News Network (FNN) was founded in 1981 by Glen Taylor, who served as chairman of the newly created five-member Board of Directors.

[1][3] Other board members included Karen Tyler, Head of Production; Rob Fisher, Vice President of Business Affairs; and Rodney Buchser, who had previously been the general manager of KWHY-TV, an independent station in Los Angeles.

The concept originated in the late 1960s when Quotron, a quotation ticker vendor, supported WCIU in Chicago and KWHY in Los Angeles with an initial limited 'ticker scroll'.

In 1969, Registered Investment Advisor Eugene Inger joined KWHY-TV and expanded financial television in Los Angeles with reporting, analysis and broader coverage.

KWHY was the first television station on the West Coast to offer daily market news accompanied by a digital stock ticker "crawl" at the bottom of the screen.

With the earlier launch of CNN by Ted Turner paving the way (Inger provided the original stock market commentary to Ted Turner's WTBS Channel 17 in Atlanta, WRET-TV [later WPCQ, now WCNC] in Charlotte and Hubbard's Channel 44 in Tampa), and following a 1975 TV Guide article about Gene Inger's programming success in New York, Taylor and Buchser realized that newly available technology made it possible to combine KWHY/Inger-style live market reporting with on-screen quotes and the concept of national news via satellite.

FNN's early history was not highly profitable and within a few years, Buchser severed his relationship with the fledgling network to launch a financial marketing services firm called FMS Direct.

[7] In 1981, shortly before its initial public offering led by Paulson Investment Company, Taylor, then the chairman, resigned due to previous legal difficulties.

In 1984, the company moved its editorial headquarters to New York and hired Nightly Business Report executive producer Mark J. Estren to oversee the network's shift in direction towards the cable market.

The network moved into newly built modern TV studios and production facilities in the Wang Building in Los Angeles and in New York's Rockefeller Center.

In 1990, only months after launching its biggest advertising campaign ever, FNN fell victim to two of the main topics of its broadcasts: a financial scandal and an accounting dispute.

During that year's audit, the network's auditor, Deloitte & Touche, discovered irregularities involving its chief financial officer, C. Steven Bolen.

FNN argued that this would significantly worsen its balance sheet, violating covenants with its banks and triggering a default on its line of credit.

In February 1991, FNN reached a handshake agreement with a partnership of Dow Jones & Company and Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W) for $90 million.

CNBC immediately took over FNN's satellite transponder space, more than doubling its audience in one stroke, and branded its business day programming as "CNBC/FNN Daytime" until 1992.

He remained a guest, often with Mark Haines or Bill Griffeth, including providing the first remote fiber uplink to CNBC from Fort Lauderdale.