Rick Kaplan Pi fraternity at the University of Illinois. Kaplan's broadcast journalism career began at CBS News, where he served as an associate producer of "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" (1974–79) and an associate producer of the "CBS Morning News" (1971–74). He was a writer, assignment desk editor and producer at WBBM-TV, the CBS-owned station in Chicago (1969–71). As an associate producer for "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite", he produced news coverage of the American political campaigns and elections in 1974, 1976 and 1978. He was also a producer of the historic visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Israel
Walter Cronkite correspondents, relieving Bill Downs as the head of the Moscow bureau. CBS offered Cronkite $125 ($2,189 in 2018 money) a week along with "commercial fees" amounting to $25 ($438 in 2018) for almost every time Cronkite reported on air. Up to that point, he had been making $57.50 ($1,006 in 2018) per week at UP, but he had reservations about broadcasting. He initially accepted the offer. When he informed his boss Harrison Salisbury, UP countered with a raise of $17.50 ($306 in 2018) per week; Hugh Baillie also offered him an extra $20 ($350 in 2018) per week to stay.