Roberto Pettinato

Who is Roberto Pettinato?

Roberto Pettinato is an Argentine musician, journalist and television presenter.

Pettinato's father, Roberto Sr., was a high-ranking corrections officer in the administration of Juan Perón. When a coup deposed Perón in 1955, he and his family took refuge in the embassy of Ecuador, where Roberto Jr. was born. After obtaining a safe conduct and leaving for Ecuador, the family lived in Peru and Chile until allowed to return to Argentina in 1966.

The younger Pettinato became involved in the Argentine rock scene of the late 1970s mostly as a journalist with the Expreso Imaginario monthly magazine, which he directed from 1980 until its demise in 1982. In parallel, he was the on-and-off saxophonist for the 1980s band Sumo, led by Anglo-Italian Luca Prodan.

After Prodan's death and the band's dissolution, he started working in television together with Gerardo Sofovich, co-hosting La noche del Domingo in the early 1990s. Later on, he gained popularity by hosting Duro de acostar on Telefe, a midnight talk show modeled after David Letterman's.