WOUB General Manager Mark Brewer celebrates 25 years with the organization

WOUB Public Media General Manager Mark Brewer is celebrating 25 years with the organization this month. He joined WOUB in July 1999 as director of public television programming and outreach. Brewer came to WOUB from KAWE/KAWB (now LakelandPBS) in Bemidji, Minnesota, but has been working in public media for four decades.

“I grew up in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in Chester County and moved to Lubbock, Texas while in high school. I started working at KTXT, (now KTTZ) the PBS station in Lubbock, while I was a student at Texas Tech University. While I was still a student, I accepted a full-time position there in 1986 as the master control supervisor,” said Brewer. “I was eventually promoted to a producer/director role and later to program director. In the summer of 1993, I took a position in Bemidji as their program and production manager. I later helped create and became executive producer of Lakeland News at Ten, a weeknight television newscast, the first television newscast to serve Bemidji, Brainerd and the north central region of Minnesota.”

Since joining WOUB, Brewer has held several roles including associate director for telecommunications, chief content officer, chief operating officer, and general manager.

“It’s been a lifetime of public media,” said Brewer. “My role as general manager is much different from many of the roles I’ve had in public media and at WOUB. I’m not creating content, or even scheduling content. I’m focused on allowing our current staff to have growth opportunities while ensuring continued long-term sustainability of the organization.”

Brewer says that when he started at WOUB, the organization was also very different. But while the industry and the organization have changed and grown, the foundation of WOUB has remained the same.

“Twenty-five years ago, WOUB had 75 employees, one (analog) television station and mass use of the internet was in its infancy. We didn’t even offer 24/7 service at the time.,” said Brewer. “Today, we are a lean 35 staff, offer seven digital streams of television content and are also distributed via multiple apps. Radio has added additional 24/7 online streams. And our service to 51�� students remains high. We continue to help them develop content for the communities we serve and prep them for whatever type of media career they hope to have after graduation. That’s always been a bedrock of what we do here.”

One of the programs developed and produced by students that serves the WOUB community is Gridiron Glory, which is also celebrating its 25^th season this year. The creation of the high school football program was one of the first program ideas Brewer approved in his new role at WOUB.

“A few students came to me to ask for, I believe, an 8-to-10-minute timeslot on Friday night to showcase area high school football games. I talked with Ken Fischer, the news director at the time, and he was on board with what the students hoped to create. Their plan was fairly solid, so I gave them the timeslot,” said Brewer. “I think most people would admit that the first show was absolutely horrible. The next Monday, the students came back and said ‘Here’s everything we did wrong that we’re fixing. Can we try again?’ And the show has evolved with that ‘What can we do better?’ attitude over the last 25 years.”

Brewer says he has been at WOUB for 25 years because it’s a special place that does important work for the 55-county, three state rural area it serves and in training of the next generation of media professionals. Looking to the future, he’s excited about how WOUB can continue to evolve and grow in its support of both the region and the students.

“I believe in what public media does and provides across the country,” said Brewer. “I enjoy that WOUB is a part of the communities we serve, and we continue to look for ways to better serve the region. And I also believe in the training WOUB provides for the students. Meeting them as they come in as recent high-schoolers and watching them leave as college graduates to start a career in a media field that WOUB has prepared them to enter into is just an exciting thing to be a part of.”

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