WAVE 3 Reporter Katie Bauer gave birth to her son Quinn Dec. 29. Only hours later, she was working with this reporter to help get this story into print.
Compiled by Lisa Hornung | Photo by Danny Alexander
Katie Bauer’s dedication to her family and telling stories are what drove her back to her home in Southern Indiana, despite the difficulty of finding a job in the same market as her husband.
Bauer, 31, grew up in Floyds Knobs and now lives in New Albany with her husband Chris Sutter, a reporter and anchor for WDRB. The two met while students at Ball State University. After graduation, Bauer got a job in Lubbock, Texas.
“It was an experience,” she recalled. “People who live in Texas love Texas!” While it was a good place to start, Bauer said she always had her eyes on Louisville.
While Bauer was in Texas, Sutter was in Michigan. They tried to see each other once every six weeks, so there was a lot of traveling. Eventually, Sutter found a job in Lexington, and in 2010, Bauer was hired at WAVE 3. The couple lived in Frankfort, Ky., and commuted to their respective jobs. Even worse, they worked opposite shifts. The TV news schedule can be tough.
Enduring their tough TV news schedules paid off when Sutter got his job at WDRB, which is located in downtown Louisville, and they began working the same shift. The pair – and their new baby, Quinn – now live in Southern Indiana and are happy there.
“I’ve just been so impressed with the area since moving back.” Bauer said. “We lived in Louisville for a little bit, but I feel like when you’re from Southern Indiana, you’re always drawn back to Southern Indiana. Even when I lived in downtown Louisville, I’d find myself over here shopping, the restaurants, everything. And we do a lot of fun, fun stuff in Louisville. But now that we live in New Albany, I’m so proud of this community! Just in the last seven to eight years, how much it’s grown. The restaurant scene and the small shops, you can really do everything over here and still have that small-town feel. I kind of get the best of both worlds.”
Bauer is the Southern Indiana reporter for WAVE, which is unique because she covers her hometown. It gives her a clearer view of what matters to the people in the area.
Her first assignment was a house fire across the street from Floyd Central High School, her alma mater. “We had to park in the Floyd Central parking lot, and it was so weird,” she said.
Bauer goes back to Floyd Central a couple times a year to speak to students, but the school was completely remodeled in 2010, so she has trouble navigating it, she said with a laugh. “You run into people and see a lot of familiar faces,” she said. “A lot of my core girlfriends are still around here, so that’s nice.”
When Bauer and Sutter got engaged, Bauer took up running as a way to get fit for the wedding. It took. She has run the Chicago Marathon twice and run several half marathons. She’s planning to run the Triple Crown of Running this year, but with the new baby, she will see how things go. “I don’t know if I could ever do another marathon,” she said. “It’s so much work.”
Bauer hasn’t been able to run since early in her pregnancy, but she did continue to workout. She and Sutter are members of the YMCA, and she enjoys Pure Barre classes, too.
During her labor and delivery classes while pregnant, the instructor said that giving birth is like running a marathon. “A marathon lasts about four hours, so, if that’s how it’s gonna be … great!” Bauer joked. She wasn’t quite that lucky, but she and Quinn are both healthy, and Sutter is excited to be a new dad.
“Working in the news business, you hear about all the things that can go wrong. But it went well,” he said. “It’s a blessing for sure.”
Family is important to Bauer. She’s glad to have hers nearby, and her husband’s family is only four hours away. Her parents, Mike and Gail Bauer, still live in Floyds Knobs, while her three siblings are scattered about the Midwest. All of the family is excited about baby Quinn. “This will be first grandchild on both sides,” she said, “and the first niece or nephew for anybody.” But being a mom and managing a reporting career will be a challenge. Neither parent works typical hours for daycare, so a balancing act will likely ensue, which is just fine with Bauer, who enjoys her job at WAVE.
“I just love how community-driven WAVE is,” she said. “They understand the importance of not just covering metro Louisville. Obviously, that’s going to be our main focus, but there are so many communities that rely on us. I’m able to stay over here and tell stories that matter to Hoosiers. I think it’s awesome that they recognize that.”
Her station’s focus on people makes her job more rewarding.
“The media gets a bad rap a lot, and we become the punching bags, and if we can prove that we’re not just in it for the sensational stuff and we care about the pulse of the community, that’s great,” Bauer said.
Sutter has high praise for his wife.
“She’s just a good person, and that’s hard to find,” he said. “She’s driven, she’s ood at heart, she always wants to do the right thing and is nice to other people.
“She’s going to be a great mom; I can already tell,” the proud father said from the hospital room when his son was a mere day old. “She knows what she’s doing, and I’m excited for what’s next.”
