Career
A native of New Hampshire, Robert R. Stafford earned a degree in political science and journalism at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1981. Stafford began his career as a reporter and anchor for KBJR-television in Duluth, Minnesota and WFRV-television in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He then became a morning news anchor and an investigative reporter at WFTV-television in Orlando, Florida.
While at WFTV, Stafford founded the station"s investigative unit and launched a two-year investigation into hotel security in Orlando, which because of Disney World is a popular tourist destination.
Stafford"s work exposed significant security breaches for tourists and ultimately resulted in a grand jury investigation. In September 1992, Stafford joined WBBM-TV-television in Chicago as a general assignment reporter.
During his four years at the station, he also worked as a fill-in anchor. Stafford left WBBM-TV in 1996 to join National Broadcasting Company"s Dateline National Broadcasting Company newsmagazine show, where he worked as a Chicago-based correspondent for the newsmagazine program for almost 11 years.
He was fired from Dateline National Broadcasting Company in 2006 in a cost-cutting move.
On September 23, 2007, Stafford joined WMAQ-television in Chicago as a weekend anchor and general assignment reporter. "I wanted this job and asked for it," Stafford told the Chicago Sun-Times after being hired by WMAQ. He moved to the main anchor position in July 2009 and currently anchors the station"s 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m. newscasts.
