Adele Arakawa
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August 31, 1957
Adele Arakawa | |
|---|---|
| Born | Adele Hausser August 31, 1957 |
| Spouse |
Barry Tiller (m. 1977) |
| Children | 1 |
Adele Arakawa (born August 31, 1957)[1][2] is a retired American evening news anchor for NBC affiliate station KUSA-TV of Denver, Colorado. As of June 2007, she provides the female voice of the airport train system at Denver International Airport.[3] She retired on June 30, 2017. She is also the former voice of the Denver International Airport Automated Guideway Transit System.
Born Adele Hausser,[4] Arakawa was raised in Hawaii and later east Tennessee. At age 16, she began taking college courses at Tennessee Tech University and working as a radio disc jockey in her hometown of La Follette, Tennessee. She also attended the University of Tennessee but dropped out after her freshman year.[4]
Professional career
Following her entry into radio, Arakawa worked as a radio news anchor at WYSH in Clinton, Tennessee and as a disc jockey at WRJZ in Knoxville, Tennessee.[citation needed]
In 1981, Arakawa made the transition to television news, working at WTVK (now WVLT-TV) in weather in Knoxville where she began using her mother's maiden name, Arakawa, at the suggestion of news director Hal Wanzer.[5] Two years later, she moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to coanchor weekday evening newscasts for WRAL-TV with Charlie Gaddy and weatherman Bob Debardelaben.
Arakawa's career next took the family to Chicago in 1989, where she again anchored weekday evening newscasts, this time for CBS O&O WBBM-TV.[6]
In 1993, she became a weekday evening newscast anchor for KUSA-TV in Denver.[7] On December 6, 2016, she announced her retirement after 40 years in broadcasting. Her last day was June 30, 2017.[8][9]
Arakawa was president of the Asian American Journalists Association in 1992 in Chicago and is a member of both the Japanese American Citizens League and the Japanese American Service Committee. Two of her grandparents were from Okinawa, Japan.[10]