Career
He currently is host of "The Think Tank" on New Orleans radio station WWL (Department of Administration and Management). Robinette was a news anchor and investigative reporter on New Orleans television station WWL-television Channel 4 for twenty years (1970 until August 8, 1990). After leaving the television station, Robinette served as head of public relations for Freeport-McMoRan in New Orleans before starting his own firm.
He returned to the media in 2005 on WWL (Department of Administration and Management) as a fill-in for David Tyree, a popular host stricken with cancer.
The position became permanent when Tyree succumbed several weeks after Hurricane Katrina. Robinette came to national attention with Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
As the storm made landfall radio station WWL was the only broadcast media in New Orleans able to continue operating during the disaster. Robinette was broadcasting from a hastily thrown together set-up in a closet of the WWL studios after the high rise building windows blew out.
In the days between the time when the hurricane hit New Orleans and when outside help arrived, Robinette"s broadcasts were an important information source for those able to hear radio broadcasts in the Greater New Orleans area.
On September 2, 2005, Robinette conducted the famous interview with Mayor Ray Nagin where the mayor urged those in the Federal Government who had been promising but not delivering aid to "get off your asses". Robinette is one of the interview subjects in When the Levees Broke, the 2006 Spike Lee documentary about the effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. Robinette, a native of the Louisiana bayou country and Hahnville High School alum, is a United States. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War.
In 1988, Robinette was caught attempting to enter the Republican National Convention, which was held in the Louisiana Superdome, with a concealed firearm in his briefcase.
Robinette is also an artist—known particularly for his portraits. He studied at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts and created the official poster for the 2011 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
On his radio show on 25 October 2006, Robinette advocated the use of nuclear weapons in an attempt to end the Iraq war. His last name means, roughly, "little bright fame," ironic considering that he became very famous after Hurricane Katrina.
Sometimes mistakenly called "Robin Garlanett", and jokingly refers to himself by using this moniker at times.
Robinette humorously refers to Democrats as "Dema-don"ts" & Republicans as "Republican"ts" and both as "Fear Clubs". He uses both these terms in the same sentence during a live Cable News Network Anderson Cooper broadcast on 6/15/10 in making a point about the Boite Postale Gulf Oil Spill. On 2010 October 22 Robinette"s Think Tank became the first media outlet to mention lieutenant governor candidate Caroline Fayard as a potential Democrat alternative to Republican governor Bobby Jindal should Jindal seek reelection in 2011.
A frequent guest on Robinette"s program is the Shreveport democgrapher and political pundit Elliott Stonecipher.
