Like a lot of people in Vancouver, The Lower Mainland, and this province, we wake up with this woman every day—that’s because she’s the Host of CTV Morning Live, Monday through Friday. Our City Tonight sat down with Keri Adams to talk about what it is like to be an award-winning reporter and daily morning show TV host.

OCT: Keri, you have been hosting the Morning Show for eleven years and, for the last two years, you’ve been on your own as a solo anchor. Can you share with us, how you keep up with your demanding schedule while still having a social and family life.

KA: To be clear I don’t always stay up late when I’m at functions, but I also don’t want to miss out. However, once you get into the groove of working on a morning show, you have an internal alarm clock. I think that even if I didn’t set my alarm for 2:40 a.m., I would probably still wake up as it’s part of my routine. I will stay out as long as I can, and then I go home to bed so I can look alert in the morning.

OCT: You always look amazing. What we find interesting about being a morning show host is that it really is different from other news shows. You go from talking about something very serious on the show—and because you’re the solo host —you can go from that right into having fun with a local chef. It’s a real cross-section for you each day. We’re sure that’s part of why you love your job because every day, it’s always something different.

KA: Oh for sure, I love delivering the news of the day. But I also love being able to say good morning to people and tell them what’s happening in the world. I also like having chats with my co-hosts, Marke and Mona. We have a great time and of course, as you mentioned, I do love doing the cooking segments or having the SPCA in the studio on regular basis with cute puppies or kittens. I do feel like there’s such a variety that we offer our viewers and that’s one of the great things about working a morning show.

OCT: You are the recipient of the prestigious Jack Webster award, tell us a little bit about that as you weren’t always behind the desk. In fact, you used to be right out there in the fray of it all.

KA: I was a field reporter for many years. Most reporters who became anchors started out as field reporters. It was in January 2005, I was covering the North Vancouver mudslide where a woman died and the mud slide took out her home. It was our coverage that led to an award and I was one of the four journalists at CTV that shared that award for best news reporting. It was a heart-wrenching story with a lot of angles to cover. 

Live reporting was something that I really enjoyed, especially reporting live from the scene, it’s something about the immediacy of that. I guess that’s why I enjoy anchoring live TV as well because you were on the spot, and this is what’s happening right now. So how we handle it is so important.

OCT: How have you found our business and the landscape of our business to have changed over the years? How do you see the social media aspect fitting into your business life? You don’t want to give away too much of your personal life, but that’s part of what you have to do now with the events you attend socially.

KA: There was no social media when I started, we did our job and went home. When I did get into the business I was working in Edmonton. I went to NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) in the early 90’s. My first job as a reporter was probably in 1995, and I moved to Red Deer in 1997. 

During that time I was shooting my own material, and I had a camera on my shoulder for two years. I was driving around Central Alberta covering stories that were everything from politics to agriculture and then back to Edmonton. Live reporting was just coming out at that time, and we were just seeing the emergence of that. Those were exciting times, and social media wasn’t a part of that. You did not need to self-promote and be seen at functions. But, yes, it does give you an element of promotion and you can share what you’re doing before they get to see it on TV.

OCT: It is true that people see you every day on TV or on Social Media and feel they have a relationship with you.

KA: I recognize that people sometimes follow me just on social media and don’t actually watch the TV show and I believe there are the audiences that follow both. It is interesting.

OCT: We must ask you about your early beginnings. Specifically, let’s talk about your cheerleading days for the Edmonton Eskimos, now known as the Edmonton Elks.

KA: I was a cheerleader with the CFL before I was a broadcaster. I did this right out of high school because I was a competitive cheerleader in high school. I joined the CFL team, and it was so much fun, and I did that for four years. We travelled and we even came out to Vancouver for Grey cup one year. 

I believe that was probably my first experience visiting Vancouver as an adult and I thought this was a very cool place to live. Just recently, I went back to being a part of the CFL alumni. So, in my 50s, I can still call myself a CFL cheerleader.

OCT: Good for you! Let’s go out on a philosophical note. If you were to go back and talk to yourself 30 years ago, what would you say?

KA: To take more risks. I think that when you’re starting your career, as a young adult, you question yourself. To be honest, I still question myself all the time. I would tell myself to take more risks, to find the happiness, to do the things that give you joy, and don’t question whether you can do it because you can. You just have to take the necessary steps.

To watch the video interview go to richmondsentinel.ca/videos