A ticker at the bottom of the screen

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer profiles CNBC “Squawk Box” anchor Joe Kernen and discusses his career and the current financial crisis.

Here is an excerpt:

Q: Is your show for all viewers?

A: It’s a fine line we walk between appealing to sophisticated investors, CEOs and someone on the trading floor – and to people managing money for a household. Maybe at times we’re not speaking to the average viewer as much as we should, but we don’t want to lose our core audience.

Q: Are you amazed at how far you’ve come from Cincinnati?

A: I’ve become friends and played golf with Johnny Bench and Huey Lewis. But I keep in mind that I’m on a business news channel on cable with a ticker at the bottom. I’m not under any illusions.

Read more here.

In October, Squawk Box was up 115 percent from last October in adults 25 to 54, with an average of 112,00 viewers, for its best month since November 2003. In total viewers, Squawk Box was up 103 percent from last October, with an average of 320,000, hitting CNBC’s best month ever for all regular programs in the time period.