WBUR Names New Local ‘Morning Edition’ Host Rupa Shenoy

This September, listeners of WBUR’s Morning Edition will hear a new voice — Rupa Shenoy assumes hosting duties, accepting the baton from longtime anchor Bob Oakes. She joins WBUR from The World after Labor Day and will make her on-air debut in the weeks to follow. Oakes, who has hosted the show since 1992, takes on a new role as senior correspondent pursuing a mix of features, profiles and political reports.

This is a magnificent moment for WBUR. Bob Oakes, who has been an essential part of Greater Boston mornings for nearly three decades, is taking a well-deserved victory lap and passing the mic to Rupa. She is a first class journalist and storyteller, with a wonderful on air presence. It is the beginning of an exciting new chapter for WBUR and for our devoted listeners.

WBUR CEO Margaret Low

Shenoy, who previously worked as a daily and investigative reporter for GBH’s Boston Public Radio, has been reporting for The World since 2018 and covering human rights worldwide. She won an RTDNA 2020 Kaleidoscope Award for 400 Years, a year-long series about slavery’s unresolved history and the origins of institutional racism in the Americas.

“Rupa’s deep and rigorous reporting expertise, including here in Boston, her passion for public service journalism and her gift for audio storytelling — she simply knocked our socks off,”  said Dan Mauzy, Executive Editor for News, WBUR. “We are thrilled for her to join the extraordinary team that brings Morning Edition to life each morning.”

Shenoy brings a podcast sensibility to her work. She is the creator and host of Otherhood, a PRX podcast exploring what the news would sound like if media were diverse. Episode topics range from “How America is melting in its pot” to “The X-rated immigrant story” with Comedian Jimmy O. Yang to “MIT looked for slavery in its past...and undergrads found it in the present.”

"I'll miss my amazing colleagues at The World, and I'm grateful for my time there," Shenoy said. "I'm excited to join the incredible team at WBUR covering the most pressing topics at the forefront of one of the country’s most dynamic regions. It's an honor to succeed Bob Oakes and I'm thrilled to help everyone in Boston start their day."

Shenoy began her broadcasting career at Minnesota Public Radio, where her reporting on the indefinite detention of civilly committed sex offenders contributed to the state Supreme Court ruling the program unconstitutional. Prior to that, she was a reporter at The Associated Press, the Daily Herald (Chicago's largest suburban daily newspaper) and The Chicago Reporter.

Shenoy has a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa.