Robyne

Robyne began her career in public media news at KUAC, coiling cables in the TV studio and loading reel-to-reel tape machines for the radio station.

She came to Alaska from California “for just a year” and never left. Since then, she has worked as a public radio reporter in Fairbanks, Homer and Barrow (now Utqiaġvik,) and as a TV newscaster in Fairbanks. She also worked in social services for Big Brothers Big Sisters and Fairbanks Native Association, and taught journalism as a professor at UAF. She is married and has two grown children.

She explains the quirk of having only one name, “just Robyne, only six letters,” to DMV clerks, airline and TSA agents, pharmacists and insurance agents. She changed to only one name as a teenager, and has legally gone by Robyne for decades. “Overall, having only one name is usually fun, and an ice-breaker. But it’s unconventional for the news business, which you know, is pretty rigid. I want KUAC listeners to have the best journalism possible, no matter who is delivering it.”

Robyne loves how Alaska listeners support their radio stations, “and they keep us on our toes,” she says. “They demand quality and excellence, so we had better deliver that.”