Rick Blangiardi : Net Worth, Family, Wife, Education, Children, Age, Biography and Political Career

Rick Blangiardi is an American television executive and politician from the state of Hawaii. He has served as the mayor of Honolulu since 2021.

Rick Blangiardi Net Worth

Rick Blangiardi Net Worth is $ 9 Million in 2021.

Rick Blangiardi Family

Blangiardi was born on September 15, 1946, to parents who immigrated to the United States from Italy. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was raised there in a tenement. He signed a letter of intent to play college football for Boston College, but when his father, a munitions expert in the United States Navy, was transferred to Naval Station Pearl Harbor, he chose to attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Blangiardi played football for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors as a linebacker. he was a letterman for the Rainbow Warriors in 1965 and 1966.

When his mother moved back to Massachusetts, Blangiardi transferred to Springfield College, where he played for the football team and completed his Bachelor of Science in physical education and biology in 1969.

Rick Blangiardi Wife and Children

He has two sons, a daughter, and five grandchildren. Rick lives in Honolulu with his wife Karen Chang.

Rick Blangiardi Career and Achievement

Television Career

Needing more income to raise his family, Blangiardi left football to work in television. He worked at KGMB from 1977 to 1984. He was vice president and general manager of KIKU (now KHNL) from 1984 to 1989. Blangiardi left Hawaii to become the general manager of KING-TV in Seattle in October 1989. He was fired in February 1992, when the station was sold to new owners. CBS hired him as vice president of new business in June 1992. In 1993, he became vice president and general manager at KPIX-TV in San Francisco. He was hired as president of River City Broadcasting in St. Louis in 1994, and after its sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group, became the chief executive officer of the Premier Horse Network in 1997. He worked as chief operating officer and managing director of the talent firm Brad Marks International in 1999, and was hired that year by Telemundo to oversee its eight affiliates.

In 2002, Blangiardi returned to Hawaii as the senior vice president and general manager of KHON-TV and KGMB. He left KHON in 2006 when Emmis Communications sold the station. After the 2008 recession, Blangiardi led the consolidation of KGMB and KHNL into Hawaii News Now.

Political Career

In January 2020, Blangiardi announced his retirement from television. The next month, he announced his candidacy in the 2020 Honolulu mayoral election. He was endorsed by former Republican governor Linda Lingle and the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO), the Honolulu Police Department's police union. He has been described as a "conservative" and in 2005 and 2004 donated to the Republican Party and George W. Bush, respectively, but is not a registered member of the Republican Party and is labeled an independent. In the August 8 nonpartisan blanket primary, Blangiardi finished in first place with 25.7% of the vote. He defeated Keith Amemiya, 58.2% to 38.8%, in the November general election and was sworn into office on January 2, 2021.