Catherine Welch
Catherine Welch is news director at Rhode Island Public Radio. Before her move to Rhode Island in 2010, Catherine was news director at WHQR in Wilmington, NC. She was also news director at KBIA in Columbia, MO where she was a faculty member at the University Of Missouri School Of Journalism. Catherine has won several regional Edward R. Murrow awards and awards from the Public Radio News Directors Inc., New England AP, North Carolina Press Association, Missouri Press Association, and Missouri Broadcasters Association.
Now that she manages a full newsroom she files less regularly for NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. In 2009 she was part of an NPR series on America’s Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, NC following Marine families during the battalion’s deployment to southern Afghanistan. And because Wilmington was the national test market for the digital television conversion, she became a quasi-expert on DTV, filing stories for NPR on the topic.
Catherine got her start in radio at her family’s radio station in Florida with her weekly jazz show "Catherine Keeping You Company." Her very first interview was with Cab Calloway, and it remains the strangest one she’s ever done. She will gladly tell you the story should you ask.
Before joining the public radio family, Catherine worked in television at KTVU in Oakland, CA and at the cable technology network formerly known as TechTV.
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Pulse nightclub gunman Omar Mateen's father was an informant for the FBI. The defense for Mateen's widow, Noor Salman, filed a motion seeking to have the case dismissed or declared a mistrial due to this information. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with WMFE news director Catherine Welch about this development.
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NewsPerfectly manicured lawns are a bit of an obsession in Florida. But one Florida man is working on a project that's turning his neighbors' lawns into working farms. -
It's time to go racing! The NASCAR season kicks off this weekend at the Daytona International Speedway. And the place is all new after undergoing a major renovation in a bid to stay relevant in a competitive sports landscape.
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Since its inception in 1954, the event has survived rainstorms, genre wars and a few near-riots. Producer George Wein says it survives for the same reason jazz does — the musicians love to perform. -
The science-fiction writer is attracting new attention. Hordes of visitors and tentacle-bedecked merchandise descended on Rhode Island for a literary festival this year that would have made Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth proud. A bronze bust of Lovecraft even appeared in a local museum. -
For all but one of the states, the pay hikes are part of automatic adjustments designed to keep up with the cost of living. -
NPR followed the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment in 2009, on the homefront and in battle in Afghanistan. Daron Diepenbruck and Josh Apsey were members of that battalion and are now back home. One left the military; the other stayed in. Both say the war changed them. -
Pearl Fryar's yard in Bishopville, S.C., has made him something of an art-world star. He's trimmed 400 plants and trees into fantastical shapes — diamonds, mushrooms, hearts and even a square. At 69, Fryar mulls his legacy and is looking to pass on his clippers. -
Wilmington, N.C., on Monday became the first major city to permanently switch TV broadcasts from analog to digital. Most of the country will make the transition to digital TV on Feb. 17. -
Not one note of recorded sound exists to document Buddy Bolden's genre-defining music. Still, rock musician Dan Pritzker is making not one, but two movies about him. The nearly mythic "King of Jazz" influenced Louis Armstrong, a key character in both films.
