(FORTUNE Magazine) – PECUNIARY TV Traders and brokers who follow financial news wires will soon be able to watch the news live on their stock-quote terminals. Infotechnology, an owner of Financial News Network, has developed a way to deliver news by satellite to brokers' screens as part of a service called FNN:PRO. The programming includes stock market stories from FNN, exclusive interviews with newsmakers, and market data -- but no commercials. Says Mark Riely, a New York City money manager and media industry expert: ''FNN:PRO could be to the brokerage industry what MTV has been to teenagers.'' Monthly fee: roughly $300 per terminal in a 25-terminal system.

ELECTRONIC TRAVEL GUIDE You're running on empty -- both your gas tank and your wallet are depleted -- and you've got only a Mobil credit card as you navigate the lonesome highway. What to do? Reach for your Interstate Travelmate. Tell it your location by punching in the state, highway, direction, and nearest mile marker or exit number. Next hit ''gas'' and enter the first two letters of the brand name. The Travelmate will tell you the exit number, direction, and distance to the nearest Mobil station. The $100 gadget, produced by Whistler, a Westford, Massachusetts, manufacturer of radar detectors, holds similar information for restaurants, hotels, motels, hospitals, campgrounds, rest stops, and tourist sites located near the 14,000 major interstate exits in the continental U.S. The data were gleaned from questionnaires sent to over 2,000 local chambers of commerce, thousands of phone calls, and visits by researchers to interchanges. The Whistler people realize Barney's Bistro off Exit 99 may not be around a year from now, so they offer annual updates for customers who send in their Travelmates along with $20.

SING-ALONG SYSTEMS Tokyo is famous for karaoke bars, where overworked businessmen unwind by crooning tunes in Japanese and English to prerecorded background music (karaoke means ''empty orchestra''). Now sing-along culture may be spreading to America. At least a half-dozen Asian and U.S. manufacturers are poised to peddle karaoke machines. With Carry-A-Tune from Seiko Instruments, the music comes on cassettes that have vocals on one track and the instruments on the other. When you're ready to sing ''My Way,'' you suppress the tape's Sinatra-like voice by adjusting the balance control. Carry-A-Tune will go on sale in August at $100, along with a selection of 12,000 songs from pop to gospel on $11 cassettes. In September, Citizen Watch will launch I'm-A-Star, a $400 unit designed to work with ordinary CDs. It incorporates circuitry that eliminates recorded vocals.

WHERE'S THE BEEF? NOT HERE Don't be surprised if you find chicken burgers sizzling on the grill this summer. Poultry producers are marketing ground Gallus gallus as a healthy alternative to ground beef: They say that skinless ground thigh meat has less than half the fat of its beefy counterpart, and that, ounce for ounce, chicken has 43% fewer calories. They also hope that by selling chicken-burger they can make dark meat appeal to the majority of U.S. consumers, who now prefer white. Leading the pack is Tyson Foods, which has begun national distribution of its Holly Farms brand Ground Fillet of Chicken. Price: $1.99 for 14 ounces. Its competitors, which so far sell only in regional markets, include Country Pride Fresh Ground Chicken from ConAgra ($2.39 a pound), Fresh Ground Chicken from Perdue Farms ($2.10), and Ground Chicken Fillet from Pilgrim's Pride ($2.19).