It takes a special type of person to pick up and move from sunny Texas and come 6000 miles across the planet to Moscow, Russia without knowing a bit of Russian. The first question most people ask is “how and why did you come here?” Well, there’s a story behind everything, and for the most part that’s the reason why millions of people in Russia, and around the world tune in to hear the voice of Don Rau every day.
Born and raised in the New York City metro area, Don Rau is a professional radio personality and broadcaster who got his start like many presenters do, at his college radio station WGSU-FM, one of the most progressive college radio stations in the Upstate New York area. Originally a business major, Don quickly got bored and regularly skipped classes to plan for his radio show which seemed to pay off big time when he received one of the first ever letters from a prisoner in the nearby local jail: “I’m stuck in here for 3 years but thanks for making me laugh, man.” For the next year, he regularly gave shout outs to incarcerated and free people alike. When the schedule was planned out for the following year, Don was called in by his Program Director: “Listen, you have a bit of a following among the locals. We’re not really sure what to do with this, but we’ve decided to move you from mid-mornings to afternoons.” Needless to say, over the next two years more classes were skipped, and despite some drama in the academic world, a career seemed to rise above the ashes.
Since that time, writing, business, politics, music, technology and everything interesting in between seemed to have come calling at one time or another. Like a bad puppy, Don chased just about everything he liked. But like 10 storage boxes full of over 3000 compact discs, the broadcasting seemed to stick around and never really leave. It was always big, hard to ignore, and seemed to be everywhere.
Today, Don is an accomplished radio presenter and host and you can hear him weekdays on Moscow’s hottest English-speaking hit music station, Capital FM Moscow 105.3 which is broadcast to over 15 million people in Moscow and surrounding areas. He is also an accomplished voice-over artist and has lent his voice to English-speaking movies and adverts.
Don has a love for all things dog and loves spending time with his four rescue dogs.