Keith
Watts

My life has been one big experiment to see where I fit in.

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We're all asked the same question as children: what do you want to be when you grow up? Well... I didn't know. I knew I liked talking to people and reading, but I didn't know where to go from there.

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My elementary school principal (Simon Hancox at Mathews School in Welland) first discovered my way with words and people and helped me capitalize on it. Every day, from grades one to eight, I read the morning announcements and emceed school talent shows. He always told me I should go into radio or TV. I should have listened sooner.

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When I moved on to high school (Eastdale Secondary) I was named "Director" of morning announcements for grade nine. Around that same time, I was invited to join a group of students in making an anti-bullying PSA for a contest held jointly by the Niagara Regional Police and CHCH-TV. You can find the video below. We won third place and it was never aired, but all of Eastdale saw us as a success. I was told my place was on-screen, not the auto shop (where I spent most of my time).

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In high school, I took auto body as an elective. I loved it and thought I had found my calling card. I graduated with a major in automotive service and moved on to Niagara College, to the "Motive Power Technician" program. I made another brief appearance on CHCH in my second year of that program. Tim Bolen visited the campus and I was asked to demonstrate how to disable a hybrid car battery. (Click the button below and skip to roughly 4:45.) By that time, I was beginning to have doubts about becoming a mechanic, and seeing how much fun Tim Bolen was having sealed the deal. I spent all that money and when I graduated, only lasted a week in the real world. As it turns out, working on cars is a lot harder than I was taught. Back to school I went. 

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Most recently, I was appointed Program Director for Niagara College's radio station, CRNC The Heat. And then COVID-19 hit. As Program Director, I was responsible for station operations and bringing specialty programming to the station. As a student in the broadcasting program, I was taught how to produce and host both news-talk and music programming, read and write news and sports, and produce small production pieces for the station.

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