TV veteran Rus Peotter, announced his end-of-year retirement as general manager of local PBS member station WGBY. (Photo courtesy of WGBY)
SPRINGFIELD — Public television is all about community — that will be the legacy of 40-year TV veteran Rus Peotter, who has announced his end-of-year retirement as general manager of local PBS member station WGBY.
For Peotter, the impact of a public television station doesn’t begin and end with the broadcasting of national educational content. Rather, its impact stems from its role as a facilitator of community discourse and local engagement.
For the last 15 years as WGBY’s GM, Peotter has overseen the creation of locally produced programs, including the station’s flagship series Connecting Point and the bilingual Latino series Presencia, to ensure the people of western New England share in the past, present, and future stories that shape our most immediate surroundings. He has also sought to re-imagine the role a public television station can play in the community as a provider of educational experiences.
“Rus has brought passion and dedication to his role, advancing WGBY’s service to audiences and communities across western New England,” said Jon Abbott, president of WGBH Educational Foundation, which includes WGBY. “His deep commitment to our educational mission is reflected in the ways he has used public media to serve teachers, students, and schools. We all have benefited from his extraordinary leadership.”
In addition to the production of such locally-minded WGBY programs as Making It Here,As Schools Match Wits, Together in Song, and the annual Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade, Peotter also launched the Latino Youth Media Institute and the Telling Our Legacies Digitally (TOLD) workshop, two initiatives aimed at enabling teens and young adults to produce personal stories using digital media.
“In public media, our job is to share an incredibly wide range of ideas and explain them — that means meeting people where they are and engaging with them directly,” Peotter said. “It’s not enough to simply air quality, thoughtful programs; we have to connect with the community, be a part of it, and help foster its growth and development.”
Peotter’s career in public television began in the 1970s as he served Maine Public Broadcasting first as a production manager, then as director of production and promotion, and finally vice president for marketing and development. He joined WGBY and WGBH as vice president and general manager in July of 2001.
During his 40-plus years of service in public broadcasting, Peotter has received countless accolades and earned a number of awards, including the 1994 Elmo Award for Outstanding Outreach Using a CTW Program, PBS Communications Professional of the Year in 1999, and C. Scott Elliot Development PBS Professional of the Year in 2003.
Peotter is an active western New England community member, currently serving on a number of national, regional, and local boards. He has also served as a trustee of such organizations as Old Sturbridge Village, CISA, The Trustees, and others.
Peotter will continue his role through the end of December while a search is conducted for his replacement. He looks forward to spending time with family and working on his farm, which has been a lifelong passion outside of public television.
