40 Years and Still Going

004f52ea-8a4f-477d-94f4-533fc67cd7e4_image.jpg

Today is a double good day for WXII (Winston-Salem) News anchor Wanda Starke.

It's her birthday and it marks 40th anniversary of the start of her journalism career.

Starke says that when she was in 5th grade, she knew that the news business was for her. 

"At the time, there weren't many positive stories about African Americans in the daily newspaper or on local newscasts," Wanda said. "I loved to write and was inspired by articles I read in the local black weekly newspaper. I was also influenced by my dad. He was a big news junkie and I always watched the evening news with him."

Four decades later, Wanda has spent her life working as a journalist at a several news outlets, including radio stations, a newspaper and several television stations. In 1991, Wanda made history as the first African American named weekday evening anchor in the Buffalo, New York, market.

Wanda came to WXII 12 News in 1994. She currently co-anchors the 6 p.m. shows on
weekdays and produces prime time specials. She also produces a weekly segment, "A Place to Call Home," which profiles children waiting to be adopted. It's a personal issue for Wanda, who was adopted as a young child.

At her core, Wanda describes herself as a
storyteller.

"... I feel so blessed to still be doing what I dreamed about as a little girl," Wanda said. "I am also thankful for parents who chose me and believed in me. They did not know any reporters and must have thought it was an odd career choice. They always told me I could be anything I wanted as long as I worked hard and I believed them."

The biggest change she has seen in the business? Technology. 

"(There's) better access to information and the ability to share that with viewers very
quickly. Social media provides an immediacy I could not have imagined 40 years ago," Wanda said. "There were no computers in the newsroom. Most reporters were still using manual typewriters and any background information came from tedious searches of news files, encyclopedias or books at the public library. Today, thanks to technology, you can find information in a matter of seconds.

"Today's technology allows us to go live with news virtually anywhere at any time," Wanda said.

H/T WXII