Michael Leland has been WPR’s news director since 2006, and has been in the radio news business for more than 25 years. He’s a New Englander by birth and a Midwesterner by choice. Michael has worked at stations in the Cincinnati, St Louis, and Chicago markets. He also worked as a newscaster and Chicago bureau chief for the Voice of America, and was weekend newscaster at NPR in the mid ’90’s. Before moving to Madison, Michael was the news director at Michigan Radio, the NPR affiliate in Ann Arbor.
Michael’s reporting career has taken him to places ranging from Iqaluit, Canada, 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle, to an old coal mine 600 feet under southern Illinois.
When he’s not at work, Michael is likely to be out taking pictures, cycling one of Wisconsin’s trails or rural roads, cross-country skiing, singing in a choir, or baking a pie.
Michael received his undergraduate degree in communications and management from Curry College in Milton, MA, and a master’s in mass communications from Kansas State University.
