Art Rascon
From College of Fine Arts and Communications
Contents |
Overview
Early Years
Rascon was born in El Paso, TX but spent most of his youth in Denver, CO. He started his collegiate education at Rick’s College (now Brigham Young University-Idaho) in the Fall of 1980. He graduated in December 1981 with an Associates degree.
While at Rick’s he learned and was mentored by Kay Wilkins and Brother Haberle. During his studies he worked as a manager of AM station KVIK. There he rotated assignments and duties among students. He also worked at KRXK and KRIC radio.
After graduating from Ricks, he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Arcadia California Mission. He left in January 1982 and returned December 1983.
Returning to his studies, Rascon went to Provo and started his undergrad at Brigham Young University in Provo. Joining the Communications Department he learned at the feet of professor Tom Griffiths.
During his time at BYU he earned a couple of Rocky Mountain Collegiate Reporting Awards and was also elected president of the local Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
He started his career reporting and anchoring for KBYU-TV and KBYU-FM. He also worked for a time with the Public Relations Department at BYU. He moved beyond Utah County as an intern and later associate producer at KTVX where he would rip scripts and write stories.
Fellow students in the program during his time at BYU include Kim Allsop and Dale Cressman.
He graduated in Broadcast Journalism in August of 1985.
Career
From 1989 to 1994, Rascon reported for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, covering such notable stories as the O.J. Simpson case, the Rodney King beating trial, the subsequent Los Angeles riots, the Branch Davidian stand-off, the Menendez trial, as well as earthquakes, fires and floods. Rascon filed dozens of reports for ABC NewsOne, an ABC affiliate news source.
Rascon has worked for CBS News as a correspondent. He reported such events as the Oklahoma City bombing, Haiti's civil unrest, Mexico's guerilla wars, Peru's hostage standoff; Cuba's downing of U.S. planes, TWA, Value-Jet, and other airline disasters. He also covered hurricanes throughout the Caribbean and reported from the heat of conflict in Central America, interviewing such tyrants as Manuel Noriega and Daniel Ortega. Rascon traveled extensively reporting on a host of domestic and international stories.
In 1998 he arrived at ABC-13 KTRK in Houston. He has reported on such major events as the war in Kosovo, Middle East conflicts, Pope John Paul's travels, death, and the Papal Election. He reported from New York City and Washington D.C., on the terrorist attacks and directly from Baghdad during the Iraq war. Rascon has traveled the world reporting on natural disasters, from earthquakes, most recently from Pakistan, to the catastrophic Tsunami in South East Asia. He has covered nearly two dozen major hurricanes in Central America and the U-S mainland, including the disastrous Hurricane Katrina.
Honors
Rascon has reported from more than 50 countries, five continents and nearly every State in the Union. He has been nominated for 22 Emmy awards and has won 16. He's also the recipient of more than three dozen other local and national reporting awards, including two national Edward R. Murrow awards, three [National Association of Hispanic Journalists' National Association of Hispanic Journalists' awards], the International Rotary award, two Headliner Awards, the RTNDA Award for Continuing Coverage and 18 Associated Press Reporting awards. He has won more than two dozen outstanding reporting awards from Press Clubs in Los Angeles and Houston.
The National Hispanic Business Magazine named Rascon one of the '100 Most Influential Hispanics in America. Rascon is a former board member of The Radio Television News Directors Association and a former Vice-President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He is an active participant of several charity groups. He also serves as President of the Rascon Charity Foundation for Children.
References
- Rascon, Art. Personal interview. 9 Oct. 2007.
- Picture courtesy of ABC 13 <http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=bios&id=3251417>.
