By Darlene Brace
The National Comedy Center in Jamestown recently welcomed Kate Welshofer to their staff as their Communications and Content Strategist. Before starting this position in early May, Kate had worked in broadcasting and journalism for twenty-seven years. For years she worked in Rochester and Albany as a news anchor for Spectrum and Time Warner, hosting the nightly news. More recently she worked as a news anchor and creator of Most Buffalo for the past four years. She is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. She won the National Edward R. Murrow Award in both 2020 & 2021 for outstanding broadcast and digital journalism from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Kate is well known in her field and has quite a following, so readers may wonder how and why she is now working in Jamestown?
Kate is very much connected to Western New York. She grew up in a small village called Perry, New York, which is located just north of Letchworth State Park. Her grandparents lived in Jamestown many years ago. As a girl she often spent summers at a family camp near Sherman, and she enjoyed spending some of her time on Chautauqua Lake. She later went to St. Bonaventure, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism communication. She has lived and worked for years in larger cities but, now she has returned to her roots in Perry.
While Kate had been working as a news broadcaster, she had also enjoyed broadcasting You Tube broadcasts on what she called One Cup Monday and One Cup with Kate. These were humorous broadcasts and she felt that it was a creative outlet. It was something she enjoyed doing, not something she had to do. It was actually these videos that landed her the job at Most Buffalo. Someone in Buffalo at WGRZ had seen her You Tube broadcasts and liked her unique ways of telling stories with humor. She was hired and helped create Most Buffalo and hosted it as the news anchor. She used humor to tell the news in a more fun and uplifting way, compared to how most news is told, that is often depressing. It is a fun news show.
Kate worked at WGRZ for six years, and four were with Most Buffalo. She really enjoyed it for quite some time, but toward the end of her contract there, she started feeling discouraged for some reason, and it just wasn’t as fun as it had been previously. Her personal life had gone through some changes, and she was no longer feeling fulfilled at work. She decided that her position at Most Buffalo was no longer a good fit. Kate decided not to renew her contract when it ended, and she left there in December 2023.
At this point, Kate wasn’t sure what she was going to do next, so she took some time to figure that out. She actually moved back to her childhood home in Perry, where she is currently living. When the word got out that she had left Most Buffalo, she was approached about the open position at the National Comedy Center in Jamestown. Previously she had sometimes come to Jamestown to do a story on the comedy center, and she was very intrigued by the center. Kate was hired by the comedy center and is now the new Communications and Content Strategist. When she was asked exactly when that title means, Kate said, “I will be an ambassador for the National Comedy Center, helping people understand what the comedy center is and what it has to offer. I hope to show local residents and visitors alike, what a cool place it is to visit and that it offers a unique experience like no other. I’d like to use media and different platforms so that the National Comedy Center gets more exposure and help raise its profile.”
Right now, Kate is working for the comedy center remotely as well as at the comedy center. It’s only been a few weeks that she has worked at the comedy center, but she feels that it is a good fit for her now. Kate stated, “Humor is part of who I am, and I appreciate being part of an organization that respects comedy as a craft and art form. It’s an honor to be part of their mission.”
Let’s all welcome Kate to Jamestown and the National Comedy Center.