John Rabe

Host, Off-Ramp

John Rabe was born in 1966 in Detroit. He moved to Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, on the Canadian border, in 1969. Rabe's first radio job was at WLXX, a small station named for the Soo Locks. He started as DJ on weekend nights, and two years later was hosting morning "drive," as the senior on-air staff member -- at 18 years old! Rabe's first public radio job was covering city and county government for WKAR in East Lansing. (He crashed the station car his first month on the job.) After graduating from Michigan State University with an English degree, he moved to Fort Myers, Florida, to host Morning Edition at what was then WSFP-FM. Inexplicably, three years later, WHYY in Philadelphia hired him to do mornings. There, Rabe learned to love live radio from Neil Tickner and Mark Vogelzang, to whom he is eternally grateful. But mornings are a grind, and after two years, he went to Minnesota Public Radio, where he, variously, hosted All Things Considered and a call-in show, produced the documentary Walking Out of History, about Ernest Shackleton's Endurance voyage, and reported. Six years later, MPR partnered with KPCC in Pasadena, and, sick of cold and snow, Rabe moved West. Rabe's been at KPCC for going on seven years. After hosting All Things Considered and reporting on health care and housing issues, he's very excited to create a show that will let him combine anchoring with field reporting.

Recent Bylines

A tour of Cheech Marin's Chicano art collection Feb. 9, 2012
Getty starts cooking class - how NOT to make pancakes Feb. 7, 2012
Lisa See on her books "Shanghai Girls" & "Dreams of Joy" Feb. 6, 2012
Investing in rail - with coins on the tracks Feb. 6, 2012
Peter Mac as Judy Garland - a 3D tribute Feb. 1, 2012
Totoro! 14-film Studio Ghibli film festival Jan. 26, 2012
Gil Scott-Heron responds to Gingrich moon plan Jan. 25, 2012
Animation genius Miyazaki gets film fest Jan. 28, 2012
What is "First Generation?" Jan. 25, 2012
Miss Chinatown 2011: KPCC listener Jan. 28, 2012
Off-Ramp welcomes Year of Dragon with bang! Jan. 28, 2012
Ted Soqui's post-Riots project Jan. 24, 2012
Chinese New Year starts with a bang in LA's Chinatown Jan. 23, 2012
From Pann's to LAX, Chinese-American architects played a role Jan. 21, 2012
LA director Andrew Ahn's "Dol" plays Sundance this weekend Jan. 19, 2012