BACKSTAGE WITH THE TALKING HEADS; TO CNBSEEN: MEET THE BLATHER BRIGADE

Steve Sanders gets up at 2: 30 a.m. twice a month to check on international markets and take a last run through his tidy stack of newspapers, magazines and handwritten notes. After carefully selecting one of his “television ties” — usually yellow — he heads to the studio, arriving no later than 4 a.m. A quick pit stop in make-up — a bit of powder to dull a complexion that tends toward oily — and he’s ready for, well, not quite prime time.

But ABC’s “World News This Morning” ain’t bad. Neither is CNBC, where Mr. Sanders, one of a growing contingent of camera-ready business news guests, got his start six years ago.

He still makes the two-hour drive to CNBC’s New Jersey studio from his home in Philadelphia twice a month to appear live on “Power Lunch.” Each of those appearances entails two hours of prep time and at least an hour of critiquing his performance on tape. Not to mention post-production analysis by his wife, who specializes in style, and a college friend, who rates the message.

“You can always do better,” says the affable Mr. Sanders, a money manager at MDL Capital Management. “And you can always look slimmer….Seeing yourself on TV can be hard on the old ego.”

Really? Well, being recognized on the golf course in Bermuda, as Mr. Sanders recently was, can be a kick.

Yet ego is only part of the allure that draws Mr. Sanders and others to commit enormous amounts of time and energy to satisfying television’s seemingly endless appetite for financial blather.

tv or not tv? no question

Guest-circuit regulars often cite such motivations as public service, education and even good times. But the bottom line is the bottom line. Clients love the instant credibility bestowed by TV — having one’s financial planner or portfolio manager appear on CNBC can be akin to sharing a hairdresser with Sharon Stone — and potential clients turn up after every show.

“It’s hard to put a dollar sign on it, but it’s substantial,” says Mr. Sanders. “Now, if only they’d let me put up my 800 number…”

Even without it, Mr. Sanders’ CNBC appearances spur “several calls” a week, many by star-struck admirers. “They say, `I can’t believe I’m talking to you in person.’ ”

And then many of them send money. One seasoned talking head, Eugene Peroni Jr., money manager at the Philadelphia brokerage Janney Montgomery Scott Inc., says he’s received accounts as large as $250,000 as a direct result of TV time.

“You can take out ads, but nothing beats editorial coverage,” Mr. Peroni says. “It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you don’t have a public face, something is lost.”

Maybe that’s because there are now so many public faces to choose from. Where once the staid Louis Rukeyser was the only game in town, now CNBC, CNN, CNNfn, Bloomberg Television and, increasingly, the broadcast networks vie for financial news junkies.

But veteran CNBC, backed by powerful parent NBC’s distribution muscle, still dominates. Daytime viewership jumped 57% last year to 234,000 households. Not an overwhelming number, but consider: the typical CNBC viewer is 35 to 50, with an average net worth of $981,000 and a median income of $136,000, according to the cable network and Mendelesson Media Research.

With such demographics, who needs the uninvested masses? Not advertisers — ranging from mutual fund companies to hawkers of high-end real estate — who have made CNBC among the most profitable cable networks, ranking just behind all-sports ESPN.

CNBC’s high advertising premiums and low production costs last year added up to $260 million in net revenues, and a total net worth of more than $1.5 billion, according to Paul Kagan Associates.

Free guests — lots and lots of free guests — are the grease that keeps CNBC’s brilliantly cheap programming machine churning. Upstarts such as Bloomberg and CNNfn have caught on, too.

Think about it: All you need to slap together a financial news network is a handful of anchors (no star salaries, except for the occasional Money Honey), a crummy set, a few trading room cameras, a ticker and the all-important guest “experts.”

The beauty of the formula is its classic win-win appeal: guests get the magic television stamp of approval; programmers fill their airtime with some of the best talking heads in the business.

All that airtime — CNBC alone showcases 50 guests every day –has fueled a fast democratization of the guesting biz. No more sitting by the phone waiting for Louis to call. “We’ll try anybody or anything once,” says Ellen Egeth, CNBC’s chief booker.

Well, not quite. Ms. Egeth and others in the industry bristle at the suggestion that quality may sometimes be sacrificed for quantity. Money managers, for example, must have $100 million under management and “pass an SEC check,” Ms. Egeth says.

Beyond not having a criminal record, what makes a good guest?

First choice: Someone who’s in the news. “We get them now,” boasts Ms. Egeth. “Without question.”

Second choice: A-listers. “We’re not going to turn down (AT&T chairman and chief executive) C. Michael Armstrong.”

Third choice, and the one that ends up filling the most airtime: “Someone you’d want to have over for dinner. Someone who can keep up their end of the conversation.”

Still, Ms. Egeth notes, “Our viewers have a high technical threshold. You try finding someone who’s a laugh a minute on Japanese banking.”

“Power Lunch” anchor Bill Griffeth says he strives for substance over sizzle. “Have we had guests on who perhaps aren’t as attractive as a (network) talk show? Yes. Have we had guests with a bit of a weight problem? Yes. Speech problems? Once in a while.”

Of course, even guests with speech impediments have products to plug, a necessary evil at which no one professes shock.

“Everyone has something to sell,” says Mr. Griffeth. “Just like everyone who appears on `The Tonight Show’ has an album or a movie to promote. It’s my job to make sure the information they impart is objective.”

That can mean challenging a guest who lays it on too thick, as happened recently with a financial planner who had written a book promoting insurance products. Or signaling a producer — via a discreet nod — to wrap it up.

Transparently self-promotional and deadly dull guests are simply not invited back. “We don’t usually give an explanation,” says Ms. Egeth. “We just say it didn’t work out.”

On the other hand, guests who give CNBC what they want find themselves on one end of what’s known in Casablanca as a beautiful friendship. Indeed, things can get positively chummy with regulars.

most `just call and beg’

“They’re like family,” says financial planner Altair Gobo of U.S. Financial Services in Fairfield, N.J., who’s been appearing on CNBC for six years. Being recognized at Price Club or on the plane to Vegas is a small price to pay for the kind of exposure that’s landed him clients as far away as California.

Mr. Sanders is family, too. During an appearance last year, crew members surprised him by flashing a picture of his newborn daughter on screen. At least that put an end to those pesky marriage proposals.

With such perks, it’s no wonder there’s increasingly stiff competition for that still-warm guest chair.

“Most people just call and beg,” says Ms. Egeth. “If I’m in a meeting for two hours I will have at least two messages from (would-be) guests I don’t know and don’t want to know.”

Among the recent doozies: a doctor pitching a solution for bad breath. When told that didn’t exactly qualify as financial news, he offered to address how to avoid foreclosure.

Another perennial wannabe sends a lemon list of bad investments –wrapped in yellow paper accompanied by yellow candy.

“We’re always looking for new talent,” says Ms. Egeth.

And it’s always looking for them.