PERRY TWP.: Orange was the color of the day for CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
That was the color of the protective fire-retardant jacket worn by Cramer, his crew and guests to the television set in the middle of the Timken Co.’s Faircrest Steel Plant. Steel-toed boots, hard hats and protective goggles were also issued to everyone.
Cramer, CNBC’s manic and bombastic money man, filmed segments of three shows on Thursday, surrounded by lathes and pieces of rolling mills at the Timken plant south of Canton on his three-day “Invest in America” visit to Stark County.
Ohio’s Utica shale and its potential economic impacts were key elements of Cramer’s on-air message on CNBC and NBC, carried on Thursday on Mad Money w/Jim Cramer, Street Signs and Squawk on the Street. He also appeared on the Today show.
Ohio is in a prime position to benefit from oil, natural gas and so-called natural gas liquids like ethane, butane and propane, buried under eastern Ohio, and he is convinced that the Utica shale will “revitalize what was derisively called the Rust Belt,” Cramer said.
He said he is confident that the Utica shale can safely be developed with minimal health and environmental impacts.
The Utica shale, he said, could help solve three of America’s biggest problems: unemployment, an addiction to foreign oil and a faltering economy.
It could trigger a major economic renewal and help shape the United States’ energy future, he said. Ohio is likely to enjoy a major economic renaissance, he said.
What’s happening in Ohio is just beginning and he said Ohio is in the first inning of a baseball game.
Every well drilled into the Utica shale creates 40 drilling jobs and 400 service jobs, said Cramer.
Ohio could get more than 20,000 wells. “It’s going to be a boom for a long time,” he said. It will get bigger as fleets of vehicles switch to natural gas for fueling, he said.
On Mad Money w/Jim Cramer, the CNBC star interviewed Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp., the Oklahoma-based energy giant that is the No. 1 player in Ohio’s Utica shale.
Chesapeake was largely responsible for the discovery of Utica shale and was very aggressive in locking up key Ohio acreage to keep other drillers out, Cramer said.
McClendon was excited about the Utica shale’s potential years before the development got under way, although he would not identify the area known in the industry as a “play” at that time, Cramer said.
The Stark County show was envisioned about a year ago after Cramer went on the road to North Dakota to report on the development of the Bakken shale oil field, said CNBC spokeswoman Steffanie Marchese.
It took about a month of planning to put together the logistics. Cramer was accompanied by nine CNBC staffers. They were joined by five Ohio staffers. The New Jersey-based crew flew in Wednesday night and were to fly out early today.
CNBC also had another crew in Ohio on Thursday. Phil LeBeau, based in Chicago, was in Youngstown reporting on the Utica shale.
The Timken Co. was thrilled to host Cramer’s television shows.
“It is a great opportunity to showcase the region,” said Rob Feielin, the Faircrest plant manager who oversees 400 employees.
It is a chance to showcase the changes under way at Timken including a $300 million investment for an expansion and the diversity of products and services offered by the alloy steel maker, he said.
The biggest issue in setting up for Cramer’s television shows was positioning a giant American flag. It took more than 30 minutes to position the flag on a giant crane so that the flag was clearly visible in the background.
For Squawk on the Street, Cramer sat in a studio chair with his feet on a wooden box. Lights were set up with two cameras. Cramer’s pack sat on the floor. A laptop and a coffee mug were on a nearby chair.
A few Timken Co. products surrounded Cramer’s filming area.
During commercial breaks, Cramer immediately flipped on his laptop computer to communicate with his staff back in New Jersey to provide needed information for the next segment being filmed.
The computer was dropped once, but it continued to work.
“A fabulous job, just a fabulous job” was the way Cramer saluted executive producer Regina Gilgan and staff at the end of the 60-minute Squawk on the Street.
Cramer temporarily lost what he called “my helmet.” It took a few minutes before his hard hat with name affixed could be retrieved. That was the biggest problem of the day.
Cramer, in a short interview, denied that his off-air persona is as colorful and crazy as his on-air character.
He said he is more subdued, laid-back and thoughtful and that his on-air character is hyped up for television.
He said he doesn’t consider himself an “ideologist … I just look at the facts.”
He admitted that he had applied to the Akron Beacon Journal and the Toledo Blade for reporting jobs in 1977 while still in college at Harvard University. Both papers turned him down.
He ended up briefly at the Congressional Quarterly before joining a newspaper in Tallahassee and later in Los Angeles. He earned a law degree from Harvard and worked on Wall Street for Goldman Sachs. He then started his own hedge fund. In 2000, he retired to become a full-time media celebrity.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.