Robert Rappaport was born in the Chicago-area, but considers himself a Tucson native, having lived here since he was three years old.

Robert graduated from the University of Arizona, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Radio-TV, with a minor in journalism. While always dreaming of one day being a Rock ‘n’ Roll DJ, his path changed somewhat while attending classes. In desperate need of an internship, Robert stumbled upon the news department at KUAT Radio (now Arizona Public Media). After a semester of doing that, he rose in the ranks and became a paid student reporter, assigned to general news and education reporting. During that time, Robert also served internships at KVOA-TV and KOLD-TV, working behind the scenes of the 10 p.m. newscasts.

After graduating from college, Robert worked for two years at KAIR/KJYK in Tucson, where he did pretty much everything, from news, commercials and DJ work for the two stations. He used two different names to distinguish himself as separate entities on the two stations. After serving a very brief stint playing oldies music overnight, he quickly realized talking about songs he really knew nothing about wasn’t quite his strength.

After trying different things for awhile, Robert returned to KUAT as a part-time weekend news anchor and in 1990 received a full-time job, eventually becoming the morning news anchor and a features producer, the job he still holds today. In addition, Robert provides content for the Arizona Public Media website, where he also writes a daily blog about news topics and other things.

Robert’s work has won numerous awards over the years. He’s been heard on NPR, Independent Native News and Alaska Public Radio. He also has written several articles for the Tucson Weekly.