Owensboro native to host new KET show

Jul. 5—On Sunday, Owensboro native Kelsey Starks can be seen as the host and producer of the new Kentucky Education Television (KET) show — "Inside Louisville" — which will debut at 11 a.m.

According to KET's website, "Inside Louisville" is a weekly half-hour show that will feature conversations with Louisville's "biggest newsmakers and personalities, celebrating the people, places and traditions that make the River City such a vibrant and diverse community" while also featuring stories that "explore Kentucky's largest city, showcasing its neighborhoods, nightlife and noteworthy attractions."

Starks, 43, is a broadcast journalist who has more than 20 years of experience as a reporter, anchor and producer in a number of markets. She is looking forward to the premiere and the new venture.

"... This is really me being able to do everything that I want to do, and that's just (telling) really cool stories, inspiring stories, uplifting things and really lifting up the stories of the city of Louisville and the people in it," she said.

After taking a liking to her video production class and working in the television studio during her time at Owensboro High School, Starks majored in broadcast journalism at the University of Kentucky.

Upon graduation, Starks wanted to aim big.

"My journalism professors were all like: 'You've gotta start small and go to a small town' ... and I really wanted to move to New York," she said.

At the age of 22, Starks worked in the Big Apple with entities such as CourtTV and MSNBC before moving a few years later to earn her master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Illinois — about 12 miles north of downtown Chicago — and found work at the local PBS affiliate.

Starks said, as a reporter, she moved around "quite a bit" to places like Washington, D.C. and Charleston, South Carolina before she and her husband, Chris, were looking to settle down.

"We were at a place where we were thinking about starting a family ..., so I was looking at markets a little bit closer to home just because my parents were there in Owensboro," she said. "I interviewed for jobs in Nashville, and Knoxville, and Louisville and all the (other) places around ...."

Starks accepted an offer from the television station WHAS in Louisville to work on the show "Good Morning Kentuckiana" in 2008.

Initially thinking that she would "be there for a couple of years and then move on," Starks ended up finding a new home in the Derby City.

"One of the things that I've kind of learned from doing a lot of these interviews with people is that Louisville can kind of suck you in," she said.

Starks was eventually promoted to the morning anchor position before deciding to focus on her growing family and became a stay-at-home mom for her three children in 2016.

"I just could not juggle the 2 a.m. alarm clock, and doing the morning show and a husband who travels — and it was just getting all too overwhelming," she said. "I was really fortunate to be able to stay home with my kids."

That same year, Starks returned to television to host KET's "News Quiz," a weekly current events show designed for upper-elementary and middle school students, due to its flexibility.

"They were like: 'Hey, if you want to come in and host this current events program for kids — it's one day a week, you go in, and read the script and you're out of there,' " she said, "and I was like: 'Oh, that sounds like a great stay-at-home mom gig where I can keep a toe in things ...' "

Starks began doing some media consulting and freelance work before being approached by KET last summer to come on board in a full-time capacity as a host and producer for a local talk show, which evolved into "Inside Louisville."

"It was an offer I couldn't refuse because that is truly my dream job, (which) is to host a local talk show," she said. "I was very fortunate that they thought of me to do that and they trusted me with something of that magnitude."

As a producer, Starks has been coming up with the different topics and story ideas for the show while hiring a small team to work alongside her.

"I'm just really excited to be kind of building something from the ground up and bringing a vision to life," she said. "It's been great."

Starks said the first season is slated to comprise of 40 episodes, with guests in the first shows are to include Teddy Abrams, music director of the Louisville Orchestra, Edward Lee, chef and writer of the book "Buttermilk Graffiti," which won the 2019 James Beard Award For Best Book Of Year In Writing, and Dan Oliver, founder of Dan-O's Seasoning.

While she described the task of the episode order "a little daunting at first," she's been able to enjoy the process.

"Once I started coming up with ideas, I have a list three times that long of people I want to talk to, or stories I want to tell," she said, "and I think of new ones almost every day. That's been fun, too ...."

For Sunday's debut and the upcoming first season, Starks hopes viewers will make it a point to watch and hear the guests' stories and backgrounds.

"...Every interview I have done so far, I've personally been inspired and I have left talking to these people feeling ... wanting to do more, and give back more and contribute more," she said. "This is hopefully something that the whole family can watch, and be inspired (by) and really learn something.

"I'm really excited about it and I hope everybody takes that away from it."

For more information, visit ket.org/program/inside-louisville.