Peter Payette
Executive DirectorPeter joined IPR in 2000, directed news beginning in 2001 and became the Executive Director in 2016.
His job is to make sure IPR remains a vibrant source of music, news and stories for people in northern Michigan and beyond, exploring life in the upper Great Lakes and sharing the wealth of artistry at Interlochen with our neighbors.
In his former role, he reported on a wide range of issues critical to the culture and economy of northern Michigan.
Many of his favorite stories are about obscure fish in the Great Lakes or the new arrivals changing the food web. He also admires the people keeping the rock 'n' roll revolution alive in the woods of northern Michigan and enjoys any story that reconnects the past to the present.
His work has been featured on NPR, Michigan Radio, Bridge magazine and won awards from Public Media Journalists Association, the Associated Press and New York Festivals.
He has taught journalism and audio storytelling to students and adults at Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Peter has vacationed in Benzie County his entire life and became acquainted with IPR through radios that were always on in family cottages on the south shore of Crystal Lake.
His wife Sarah is his biggest fan. They have four children, Isabelle, Amelia, Emmet and Juan, and they live happily in Traverse City's Kids Creek Neighborhood.
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More than 450 listeners chose to support Interlochen Public Radio during the drive. -
More than 500 listeners supported Interlochen Public Radio during the fall drive. -
The team looking for the oldest shipwreck in the Great Lakes says there’s a “high probability” they’ve found it. -
There was a plan to release hundreds of pine martens — a slender, furry predator native to the Upper Midwest — in Michigan's lower peninsula over several… -
A years-long effort to build an experimental fish ladder on the Boardman River in Traverse City is in jeopardy. That’s all because of a man who decided to… -
A century ago, Michigan decided politics was not useful for protecting the state’s forests, water and wildlife. A commission was set up to manage natural… -
At a lock and dam site in the suburbs of Chicago, there’s a plan to build a set of booby traps to keep invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes. It… -
A dispute between Michigan's Department of Natural Resources and the commercial fishing industry is heading to court. The state announced it will prohibit… -
The few commercial fishers that remain in Michigan are suing the state’s Department of Natural Resources over changes to industry rules. They say the new… -
Arctic grayling were wiped out of Michigan nearly a century ago. Since then, researchers have been trying to restore the iconic fish to the state, without…
