AIRspecials

The Third Annual AIR Interlochen Radio Residency

FEBRUARY 1 is the DEADLINE for this extraordinary opportunity.

April - June in Traverse City, Michigan

Interlochen Public Radio invites AIR members to consider spending this Spring in Northern Michigan. We'll select one producer to join us from April to June to work at our station on some aspect of local programming. Travel, lodging and some meals will be provided along with a $6,000 stipend. This opportunity is open to any producer who is a member of AIR.

Interlochen Public Radio operates two radio services, IPR News Radio and IPR Music Radio, in northwest lower Michigan. We are owned by Interlochen Center for the Arts, a premiere institution in the U.S. for training youth, and now adults, in the fine arts. Traverse City is our major population center. 90,000 people live in our coverage area. The region is home to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, more than half of the tart cherry trees in the U.S. and a sizable summer population that supports a number of cultural institutions that might not otherwise be viable, like a symphony orchestra. Interlochen was recently added to The 100 Best Art Towns in America by John Villani.

From Peter Payette:
We view our station as means to serve our particular community. While our community wants information and discussion about national and international affairs, it also benefits from discussions about our own circumstances and challenges. So our local origination material tends to be devoted to our place and what we can discover about it and the people who live here. Producers interested in coming should recognize our purpose and be ready to share it during their stay.

We are interested in a producer who will come to our station and contribute to our news service in one of the following ways:

  • Oversee, as the executive producer, the creation of a special radio series that would include contributions from Interlochen staff, freelancers and others.
  • Design and produce an independent project.
  • Help us develop and produce our weekly call-in program Points North.

To apply, please submit a resume and a one- to two-page letter telling us about yourself, why you would like to come and what you would like to do. The amount of specificity is not crucial. We recognize that you cannot become expert in the issues most current in our region by visiting a few websites. Just do your best to explain what you would contribute. That could mean a detailed proposal for an independent project or a general approach to developing a call-in program. Just show us what you have to offer our station.

Producers that propose an independent project should have some ideas about how their stay here would benefit Interlochen staff. That is one of the goals of this residency and if the producer will not be working directly with staff, then some provision should be made to ensure his or her experience will be shared, perhaps through workshops or presentations.

Submit materials by February 1st, 2006 to Interlochen's News Director, Peter Payette, at payettepc@interlochen.org. Feel free to contact him with questions or to discuss ideas.