CityState : Q & A l by Lauren Clem
Kelly Bates
The trailblazing meteorologist for ABC6 talks gender roles , motherhood and being a woman in the news industry .
She might have grown up over the border in North Attleboro , Massachusetts , but Kelly Bates is a Rhode Islander through and through . The Coventry resident was a reliable face on WJAR for seventeen years , where she became one of the state ’ s most recognizable weather personalities . After she and the station had a rocky parting in September 2021 , she wondered whether she ’ d ever work in television again . One viral TikTok video and nine months later , she was back on the air at ABC6 , where she started her Rhode Island weather career back in 2000 .
A year-and-a-half into her new gig , Bates sat down with Rhode Island Monthly to reflect on the changes that led to where she is now and the outlook for women as they age in television ( spoiler : not good ). She ’ s also embraced her new status as a mentor and role model , supporting everyone from her devoted viewers to her transgender daughter .
It ’ s been a little over a year since you returned to ABC6 . How ’ s it going ? It ’ s fun , because it ’ s exactly where I was . I was weekend nights , and here I am on weekend nights . But it ’ s interesting , because I have a different role this time . I get asked a lot of questions from the young people in the newsroom . It ’ s almost a mentoring role that I ’ ve stepped into now . And I love it . I see it as a way I can help these young people getting into this business that ’ s rapidly changing right now . I try to empower them . They want to do good work , but they don ’ t want to be taken advantage of , and I find that ’ s a fairly common thread with young people . People in their twenties , they see that there are jobs available , but they don ’ t want to work for nothing , and that is something that is happening . Nobody wants to pay them to work . So I ’ m trying to show them ways that they can approach things to maybe get a little more or stand up for themselves . Things I wish somebody had told me a long time ago .
What would you have told yourself at that age ? I would tell myself to absolutely stand up for yourself . To absolutely know your worth and never agree to the first offer . Because that ’ s the minimum they ’ re willing to pay you . And you ’ re not being a nice person by agreeing to that . You ’ re potentially setting yourself up to be pushed around . I thought being nice was worth more than being an advocate for yourself . But it ’ s not . I should ’ ve stood up for myself . And there is a way to do them both . There ’ s a way to be nice and genuine and still stand up for yourself , and I didn ’ t do that . I let myself get pushed around . A lot of it has to do with traditional gender roles , where I was the only girl in my class at college in meteorology .
When you left WJAR in 2021 , your goodbye message to viewers got nearly 60,000 likes on TikTok . You were incredibly raw in your emotions , and I think it resonated with people . Well , it was my life . Before I worked in the industry , I was part of this industry . And that came from my father . My father designed television stations from the equipment standpoint . We always had cameras , and I had a Betamax in my house , which was one of the first VCRs . My father had to know how everything worked because he drew up the schematics and flow charts and how things were to be wired up . There ’ s tape of me when I ’ m five standing outside my house going , ‘ Today ’ s going to be hot , but a little chilly .’
Did you have support when you were a teenager in pursuing that career goal ? 100 percent . My dad always got behind me . My dad was the driving force for everything . Even though there were no women doing this job , my dad used to say , ‘ You can walk among kings .’ For a girl growing up hearing that , and knowing that your dad believes in you like that , I was very confident .
What was it like going on-air for the first time ? It was terrifying . It was utterly terrifying . It was ’ 96 . I was twenty-four and a size six , and I would get calls saying , ‘ The weather lady needs to wear a girdle .’ I am not kidding you . At the time , a lot of women were being brought on weather teams as almost a token thing , you know ? I was on weekend mornings ; it ’ s considered the lowest-rung show . It was a great station . I learned so much . The meteorology staff at WMUR [ in Manchester , New Hampshire ,] were second to none . Anytime you ’ re in an
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ABC6 . RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2023 31