Biz Bits: Keith Havens’ latest launch
'Keith's Big Fish' lives on in internet form
One of the region’s most well-known television personalities has revived a popular segment of a local news broadcast.
Keith’s Big Fish and Outdoor Trophies is dropping at 3:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday on Facebook, said Keith Havens, a former weather forecaster at KLEW-TV, a Lewiston CBS affiliate.
The show takes its cues from “Keith’s Big Fish,” a feature that aired during the weather segment five days a week before Havens left KLEW in June 2023.
Similar to the KLEW feature that ran 14 years, viewers submit pictures of fish with details about the species, weight and length and perhaps a little about where they caught it, Havens said.
Since he’s been off the air, people have approached him frequently telling him how much they missed that part of the news, Havens said.
The format has expanded. Havens begins with a fishing joke, talks about his sponsors, shares a “Big Fish” picture and then another photograph of an “outdoor trophy,” which are provided by viewers.
The latter includes snapshots of outdoor scenes and wildlife as well as images of game harvested by hunters, huckleberries people gathered or produce individuals raised in their gardens.
Havens wraps up with information about local events and an invitation for people to submit content at keithsbigfish@gmail.com.
All of the sponsors, Havens said, are businesses that sell goods and services he purchases and endorses.
The production is running on a tight budget from a studio at his Lewiston home in a project that Havens said has made him feel “giddy and stressed.”
Havens’ wife, Elisa Havens, operates the camera. The audio works through a lapel microphone plugged into his telephone.
Marlin Jackson, a retired KLEW engineer; Shaye Kingsley, a former KLEW news producer; and Jeff Boyer, an owner of JEDA Media, a marketing firm, helped him put the show together. Kingsley is now the owner of ShayeK Designs.
As the show continues, it will be available on additional platforms with more content, Havens said.
Finding a way to be in front of viewers again is just part of what Havens has been doing after leaving KLEW.
He and his wife have residential rentals in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and a vacation rental in the Winchester area.
