WTIP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Chuck is a Tofte-based photographer, storyteller and entrepreneur. After a decade-long career in public television, he co-founded two companies and a journalism non-profit before wising up and moving to the North Shore in 2020.
You can hear Chuck on-air most weekends, and he'll be interviewing community members for WTIP's 25th birthday. When he's not behind the mic, he's behind the lens searching for moose in Superior National Forest and new sunrise angles over mighty Lake Superior.
Job Titles:
- North Shore Morning Producer
CJ began volunteering at WTIP in 1999 when she moved to Grand Marais from the Twin Cities.
She has hosted and co-hosted numerous programs over the years including North Shore Weekend from it's inception in 2009 to 2019.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer of the Board of Directors
Cory is the Admin Specialist at WTIP. He studied anthropology at Hamline and has worked in archaeology and software development, having moved to Grand Marais a year ago, and he's most recently taught technology classes at GES. He enjoys photography, the outdoors, and loves to explore all kinds of music, but especially experimental styles and sounds from around the globe.
Deb Benedict was WTIP's executive director from 2001 to June 2018. Under her leadership, the station grew to over 1,000 members and now numbers over 70 on-air volunteers and eight staff. All this growth lead Deb to pursue the purchase of a new home for the station, nearly tripling the size of its previous space. Since settling in the new building in 2008, the station has taken complete control of its airwaves, broadcasting around the clock 7 days a week right from the WTIP studios. In 2009 Deb was elected president of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters board, bringing her community-driven vision and leadership skills to the national organization. In her spare time, Deb plays tennis, hikes, kayaks and enjoys her cabin adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness near the Canadian border.
Kalli Hawkins grew up in Grand Marais and has a long family history in the area stemming from the early 1800s. After graduating from Cook County High School, she moved away for nearly 15 years to attend college and explore the vast landscape of Colorado.
She has a professional background in geography, sustainability, and freelance writing & media. She joined WTIP in 2022 as a reporter and producer. However, her history with WTIP began while attending Cook County ISD 166. She read the school news with a fellow classmate on the air in the late 1990s.
When she's not attending city council meetings or chasing the next news story, she can be found adventuring on backroads, trails, and familiar lakes with her two pups, Riley & Remy.
Katie Belanger joined the WTIP community as Development Director in 2024. Originally from Wisconsin, Katie has spent the bulk of her career in Minnesota as an editor, publicist, and high school English teacher. She loves living near the big lake with her husband, two children, one dog, and two cats. When not at the station, you'll find her reading cookbooks, exploring the land, and attempting to crochet.
Kirsten has been at WTIP since June 2023. She is originally from Milwaukee and attended the University of Minnesota where she studied journalism and German. After college she spent time living and working abroad, returning to Minnesota as an intern at North House Folk School in 2018. She has a background in food and education and teaches baking classes at North House.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Secretary
- Vice President
Job Titles:
- President of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Support
Over 1,300 listeners are active members. By choosing to support WTIP with a financial donation, these members provide essential funding that helps make WTIP's services possible.
Of our annual active members, approximately 33% are sustaining members, or people who give a monthly gift to WTIP through their bank account or on a credit card. This kind of contribution helps in a number of ways, like planning our monthly and quarterly budgets, cutting down on fees and mailings, and helping to even out our monthly cash flow.
If monthly giving might work for you, just follow the link below and choose your level of monthly support.
You can sign on as a sustaining member, or give a one-time gift. It's up to you!
Matthew assumed the duties of Executive Director in June of 2018. He started with WTIP as a volunteer host in 2002, took over the duties of Sidetracks host in 2008 and then Program Director in 2014. He has lived in the County for over 20 years and has an affinity towards Lake Superior and large bodies of water.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Legacy Projects Coordinator
Legacy Projects Coordinator Staci Drouillard has been involved in local radio since 2003, first volunteering as co-host of the A.M. Community Calendar, and as host of the Women in Music program. She has produced two, original series for WTIP--Walking the Old Road: Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Chippewa, and Anishinaabe Way: Lives, Words and Stories of Ojibwe People. Current projects are- It Happens Here: The Roots of Racial Inequity on the North Shore and production of Anishinaabe Bizindamoo Makak. Originally from Grand Marais, she is a Grand Portage Ojibwe descendant, has a B.A. from the University of Minnesota, and earned a Master's Degree in Liberal Studies from the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
Sterling Anderson grew up in Grand Marais and got his start in radio with the WTIP Youth Radio Project. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2017. He worked as an intern at WTIP in the summer of 2017 helping out in the news department and producing material for a variety of local programming. Sterling was hired as a staff member in August 2017.
After vacationing here for years, Tom and Kim moved to Grand Marais in 2012.
He has been a WTIP volunteer, lugging gear behind the stage at Radio Waves and answering phones during membership drives.
Tom joined the WTIP staff part-time in 2024, giving on-air weekend weather updates and generally helping out as needed.
Veronica became an on-air volunteer at WTIP in February 2007. Since then she has had a variety of roles as both a volunteer and staff person. Currently she is on the development team, facilitating member and underwriter support of the station.
Will is originally from St. Cloud, MN, where he started his career in radio as a volunteer DJ at 88.1 KVSC. He graduated from St. John's University in the spring of 2013. During his time there he worked with KJNB, the school's online radio station, and was awarded one of the first Gary Eichten Fellowships with Minnesota Public Radio News. He has also worked in MPR's Young Reporters program and had a story featured on All Things Considered. He has been vacationing on the North Shore his whole life and is excited to finally live and work along the coast of Lake Superior.