Adele Arakawa


Adele Arakawa 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. She retired on June 30, 2017. She is also the voice of Denver’s RTD Light Rail trains, announcing stations, stops and destinations.

Early life and career

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. Following her entry into radio, she worked as a radio news anchor at WYSH in Clinton, Tennessee and as a disc jockey at WRJZ in Knoxville, Tennessee.
In 1981, Arakawa made the transition to television news, working at WTVK in weather in Knoxville where she began using her mother's maiden name, Arakawa, at the suggestion of news director Hal Wanzer. Two years later, she moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to coanchor weekday evening newscasts for WRAL-TV with Charlie Gaddy and weatherman Bob Debardelaben. Her career next took the family to Chicago in 1989, where she again anchored weekday evening newscasts, this time for CBS affiliate WBBM-TV. Since Christmas Day 1993, she was a weekday evening newscast anchor for KUSA-TV in Denver. On December 6, 2016, she announced her retirement after 40 years in broadcasting. Her last day was June 30, 2017.
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.

Awards