Art Rascon Biography

Art Rascon (born December 4, 1962) is the anchor for the five o'clock news for ABC in Houston, Texas. He is an Emmy Award winner and a former vice president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Hispanic Business Magazine once named Rascon one of the one-hundred most influential Hispanics in America.

History

1998-CURRENT: KTRK/ABC Houston. Art Rascon joined ABC-13 in 1998 as 5pm anchor. He has reported on wars in Iraq, the Middle East, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and conflicts throughout Central America and elsewhere. He reported Pope John Paul's travels, death, and the Papal Election and reported from New York City and Washington D.C., on terrorist attacks. Rascon has covered everything from earthquakes and tsunamis, most recently being one of the first to report from Haiti the morning after the quake. He has executive produced and reported numerous 30-min Special Reports on a variety of subjects and reported from the scene of more than a dozen major hurricanes, including Katrina, Ike, and a host of other storms.

1994-1998: CBS NEWS Correspondent. Rascon covered 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. During his time at CBS he travelled extensively reporting on a host of domestic and international issues.

1989-1994: Rascon worked 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.

1983-1989: Rascon worked as a reporter/anchor at several cities in Texas, including San Antonio, El Paso, and Abilene. He also worked as an associate producer in Salt Lake City and as a reporter at KBYU-TV in Provo.

Honors

Rascon has been nominated for 25 Emmy Awards and has won 19. He is the recipient of more than three dozen other local reporting awards from press clubs in Houston, Los Angeles and Miami and a host of national awards, including two Edward R. Murrow awards, three 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. Rascon has reported from more than 50 countries, five continents and nearly every State in the Union.

Rascon was once named by The National Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the '100 Most Influential Hispanics in America. He 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 in several local and national charities and currently serves as a board member of Interfaith in The Woodlands. He also serves as President of the Houston Association of Hispanic Media Professionals.

Born in El Paso, Texas, and reared in Denver, Colorado, Rascon graduated from Brigham Young University. He also studied Spanish, Humanities, and European Politics/History in Madrid, Spain. Rascon is happily married with six children.

Early years

Rascon was born in El Paso, Texas. His family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, then Albuquerque, but he largely grew up in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Green Mountain High School just outside Denver and began his college studies at Brigham Young University Idaho in 1980. Rascon served a mission for his faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then returned to his studies at Brigham Young University in Utah. He also spent six months in Madrid, Spain studying European political science, History, Humanities and the Arts. He later graduated from BYU in 1985. While in college Rascon worked as a reporter for KBYU-FM and KBYU-TV.

Rascon wrote a book entitled The Heart of the News about his experiences as a reporter. Rascon has also written another book about his reporting career On Assisnment: The Stories Behind the Stories: Inspiring Experiences of an LDS Broadcast Journalist (ISBN=1577342941).

Rascon is the current President of The Houston Association of Hispanic Media Professionals. He also serves on the Executive Board of Interfaith of The Woodlands and South Montgomery County Community Clinic. Rascon is also an active participant in various other Non-profit charitable organizations.

Rascon is a popular motivational speaker, regularly speaking at dozens of educational, business, and non-profit organizations each year.