P.O. Box 632 Findlay, Ohio 45839 Phone: 419-420-9327

Beth Richards
Hometown Girl Pursues Broadcasting Career
By Beth Richards
Apr 1, 2008, 20:39

When your parent is a teacher or an athletic director at a high school, there's a good chance that sports or education will influence your life and even your career.  Such is the case for Katie Snodgrass, 2002 graduate of Findlay High School.

Daughter of Jerry and Barbara Snodgrass, Katie's dad was a science teacher before becoming the AD at FHS.  Her mom, a nurse, works in the health care field, traveling to and monitoring and improving nursing homes. 

Katie's first career path took her into early education at Bowling Green State University, but not long into college, she switched majors and emerged in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts, Telecommunications Degree and a minor in Journalism. After learning from her father that a sports network would be starting up in Lima, Katie decided sports broadcasting might be fun, and decided to give it a try. 

She began with television production for Buckeye Cable Sports Network and as a Sports Department Intern for WTOL-CBS, Toledo, Ohio.  Katie also worked as a Television/Video Intern for the Toledo Mud Hens games. 

"When I started working at the sports network, I became sort of addicted to the sports scene, always wanting to watch sports on TV over anything else and I'm still that way."  

Expanding her career, she decided then to venture into news just to see what it would be like.  For the last half of 2006, she worked as a videographer/editor for ABC18/FOX25/CBS38 in Lima.

 "I really enjoy knowing what's going on and being nosey about things; the first thing I do in the morning is turn on one of the major networks to see what's going on in the world."

From Lima she's moved on to the prestigious position of Weekend News Anchor/Producer/Reporter for NBC-WHIZ in Zanesville, Ohio. Katie is a reporter three days a week, and weekend anchor which includes producing and writing, using iNEWS, editing and anchoring weekend newscast. She also does weekday anchoring as needed.

Her job often brings unusual challenges. Television audiences feel they have a relationship with news anchors and will sometimes call to critique hair, clothes or make up.  But as Katie puts it, "That's the business."

Also, her knowledge comes into play. "It's funny; people think just because you work at a television station, that you know everything."  She's had views call and ask what song is playing on their affiliated radio station or inquire as to how to get a swarm of bees out of a yard.  Many people incorrectly assume that WHIZ is directly affiliated with NBC in New York, so the phone calls they receive can get "interesting" as Katie puts it.

Her new city has taken some getting used to. "Zanesville is different from Findlay … from the hills to the people..It's really even hard to compare the two...I miss Findlay."
"I think many people don't realize how nice of a town Findlay is until they leave it for a little while, I was just home recently and it's just welcoming to be there and it's one of those places that doesn't compare to anywhere else."

One of Katie's dreams is that Findlay would open a TV station again and allow people from local colleges to intern and get their "feet in the door" of an exciting career.  She acknowledges the start up cost is challenging but knows that a local station would be a good thing for Findlay.

Katie's younger brother Mark is a junior at Ohio State, majoring in communications. Who knows, maybe the two of them could return to Findlay and make a local TV station a family affair.