Woman of Vision: Sylvia Bugg

In this episode, host Sandra Abrams sits down with another of WIFV’s 2024 Woman of Vision honorees, Sylvia Bugg. As the Chief Programming Executive and General Manager of General Audience Programming for PBS, Bugg shares insight into why she is a life-long learner, how her previous experience at Discovery and CPB shaped her, and what leadership skills she brings to  her position. She also explains the PBS opportunity for media content creators to support long and short form documentaries produced and created by diverse/BIPOC filmmakers and what she “envisioned” for her career when she first started out in the media business. WIFV honored Sylvia Bugg in May 2024 at its annual Women of Vision event, held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. 

Learn more at www.pbs.org 

www.wifv.org/womenofvision

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Transcript

00:10 - VO (Host)
Welcome to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video in Washington DC. We bring you conversations with industry professionals for behind-the-screens insight and inspiration. 

00:24 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Normally, media Maker Spotlight talks to a creative media maker about their project, but in this episode I'm going to chat with a senior executive who's been described as a trailblazer with the public broadcast service known as PBS. I'm your host, sandra Abrams, and today my guest is Sylvia Bugg, the network's chief programming executive and general manager for general audience programming. She's also a member of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and a member of Women in Film and Video. Earlier this year, women in Film and Video honored Sylvia as one of its 2024 Women of Vision honorees. Welcome, sylvia Bugg, to Media Maker Spotlight. 

01:10 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Thank you, Sandra. It's wonderful to be with you. 

01:14 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So we have. Many of our members are from the DMV and I see that you're also a local person, so you went to Old Dominion for undergraduate, you got your master's in journalism for America University and you have your MBA from Maryland. So you're a monarch, an eagle or a term. Who do you root for when it comes to college sports? 

01:36 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Well, it's interesting right now because we're in football season. I'm actually rooting for the USC Trojans. I did my doctorate work at USC in the School of Education, so I'm very much all of those fans. But around this time of year I become a Trojan fan, so fight on. 

01:59 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
All right, you heard it here, folks. All right. So now PBS, I read it's a private corporation owned by its member stations. It doesn't produce programs, but instead provides programming to its member stations and distributes programs. So I think it's over 350 public TV stations. So, when it comes to your job title, how does that fit in with what is going on with PBS? 

02:26 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Yeah, it's a great question, and I think how you refer to PBS as standing for service, I do think of my job very much in a service-oriented role, and so the work that my team does in general audience programming is setting the national schedule, a holistic pipeline that spans across a number of different genres, and then also thinking about platforms and so how we've evolved in terms of audience engagement, how audiences consume media. 

02:59
It's very much meeting them where they are, and so, in addition to the national content broadcast schedule, we've also evolved in terms of a digital streaming strategy. So my team really works to look at a linear schedule, a streaming schedule, across all platforms in a very holistic way. So, in addition to the core content on PBS, my team also manages Digital Studios, which is a YouTube platform for PBS, and also Learning Media, and that is the service that PBS provides educators and students free resources that are available in curated collections on PBS Learning Media, and so we're fortunate in the sense that we provide programs that speak to the mission of PBS, but also, again, meeting audiences where they are in terms of how are we thinking about bespoke, customized content for all of these platforms? So, feeling very fortunate that we're able to work with wonderful filmmakers and producers and our station partners to deliver this content to the. 

04:06
American people. 

04:07 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So when I saw you in May at the Women of Vision Awards, you had just come back from Vegas. So what happened in Vegas? Can you tell us what happened in Vegas? 

04:18 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
What happened in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas. So PBS hosts PBS annual meeting each year, and so, prior to Las Vegas, we were in San Diego for our annual meeting last year, and prior to that, we had not been together in four years due to the pandemic, and so the time that we spent in Las Vegas was really bringing together an entire public media system, to your point of over 330 plus member stations, to really talk about the issues, not only at the national level. But what are those areas that local stations, local PBS member stations, are thinking about? How are they thinking about connecting and reconnecting with audiences? How are they thinking about that engagement piece which is so important, and how we serve at the regional and local level? So we come together. For my group, we showcase some of the wonderful content that's coming to our pipelines. We have some entertainment on the stage. This is Austin City Limits 50th anniversary. 

05:21 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yes, I love that. Yeah, I love Austin City Limits, yeah, so we had amazing tribute to Austin City Limits. 

05:28 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
We were also celebrating NOVA's 50th anniversary, pbs's long running science series. So we use that opportunity at the annual meeting, which was in Vegas, to talk about what are the upcoming priorities, how are we thinking about audiences? How do we continue to amplify our engagement, learning, media. So it really is a meeting, a system meeting for our membership, for our member stations. 

05:57 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Another show is the Great American Recipe and I understand you brought that forth and it just concluded its third season. So how did that show come about? Was this something that through the audience members? I mean? I understand cooking shows and food shows ever since Julia Child came on, but you know, how did that particular show like reach your radar and say, ok, yes, we want this. 

06:19 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
It's a great story. It's a great story Actually. The person who served in this role prior to me Green Lip, the concept, and the woman who oversees the series, zara Frankel. She had talked with me very early on about this project. At that time I was with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She said I've got this great idea that I've been sort of developing, would love to tell you more about it, and I always describe Recipe as more of a series about culture and people through the lens of food family recipes, sharing some of our individual history but also collective histories. And the show has really evolved more great stories from regions around the country. We've got great hosts and guest judges and really it's designed to find those stories that represent regional cuisines, regional stories. But it's something that's a friendly concept for PBS and for audiences. But it really does highlight what makes us all unique and it's often through our stories, our families and how do we connect and bond through food. And so we're really excited that we've been able to bring back that series. 

07:31
It's just hard to have a series return for a number of different reasons, so we've been fortunate that audiences have continued to respond to that series and also we developed a digital companion series called Pan Pals. The Great American Recipe is done with our partner VPM and Pan Pals is done with Austin PBS. That's a digital companion series where people come on and they swap recipes. So, sandra, if you've got a family recipe, you're going to share that recipe with me and I'll share my family recipe with you and we'll see how the dishes turn out. And so we really do think about that content strategy and content play in terms of audience and distribution in a very holistic way. So we like to think there's something for everybody and I think recipe really hits the spot so we can share stories over food and culture but also make it enjoyable, hopefully as a family co-viewing experience. So it's been a lot of fun to see it evolve. 

08:33 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I say I have some recipes from my mother, but my mother was one of those cooks where, oh, you put in a little of this and a little of that. 

08:49 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Acton? Absolutely, but that's what made the recipe so special, because they had their own creations. My grandmother was the same way. What recipe? We do a little bit of this and that, and it came out well. So I think it's something we can all relate to. 

09:00 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, I want to step back and ask a little bit more about so early on in your career. You worked at Discovery and at different networks, and then you also worked as a vice president of diversity and TV content at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. So you were responsible for CPB's effort to expand diversity across the public media. How did that experience inform what your current role is at PBS? 

09:26 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Yeah, so I've been fortunate. One of my early jobs out of college was with PBS, and so I'm a boomeranger, I guess is what we're called. But collectively I've spent over half of my career in public media, including at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Part of the rest of the career was spent at Discovery. But there's always sort of an interesting way that you return to your roots and return home, and so I've always seen PBS and public media as a home. 

09:57
But I think for me, collectively, all of my work experiences have brought me to this moment, I think, loving public media, pbs, our mission, how our work is aligned with audiences seeing themselves reflected in our content, the fact that we're able to provide free resources and services to the American people and, I think, especially now, the importance of the storytelling that is across PBS and public media platforms. 

10:28
It's so important. I think one of the great things that we have and we talk about this a lot is the context. Why a piece of content? Why now? So we really do query ourselves when we're thinking about project development what are stories that are really resonating, what are those stories that are untold or undertold, that are just so important to really helping to inform a larger society. It's not to tell people what to think, how to think, but it's really giving them that context and being rooted in great storytelling and great characters. And so that's the beauty of, I think, how all of my former positions and job experiences and career paths have really brought me to this moment to have such a deep appreciation for the work of PBS and public media and the value that we bring to the American people. 

11:22 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, that gets back to one of my questions. You know content is king and you said you know looking for different types of content. I read there was the fellowship program to support mid-career nonfiction filmmakers, to encourage more film submission from diverse voices, particularly Black, indigenous and people of color. Can you talk a little bit more about that fellowship program? 

11:44 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Sure. 

11:44
So that program was really designed to do just that really find ways to help amplify the work that, I would say a lot of our organizations, programs, initiatives that PBS and public media have supported. 

12:01
It was a new way for us to think about those filmmakers and creators who are newer to public media, as well as support for those filmmakers who have helped public media and PBS be what it is today, and so we felt it was important, as we were thinking about ways to expand that, to really have a few different avenues One again for those filmmakers who were newer to our system but those who really have helped to shape, I think, our overall content strategy and pipelines. 

12:35
We wanted opportunities in a few different ways and again, it was a way to amplify a lot of the work that our partners had already done, a lot of the initiatives and labs and things of that nature that I think when we talk about PBS and the value, we're thinking about the content itself, but it's also important to look at who are those makers who have been so instrumental in making public media and PBS what it is today, and so we're deeply grateful for those filmmakers who want to work in public media, who want their films on PBS, but we also felt it was important to continue to invest in the support in ways that they need in order to do their best work. 

13:20 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So if somebody is listening because obviously we have, you know, women in film and video, we have close to a thousand members they're listening and they want to know how they can find out more about the fellowship. What do you recommend? 

13:34 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Yeah, so we will always do a communications plan about how you can apply what the program elements consist of. So I would just say, continue to stay abreast through our social, through our website. We will post all of it there. We get an opportunity it's through a selection process to see all of the different ways that talent I think has been expressed through programs like this, and we want to find ways to continue to feed the pipeline of filmmakers, and so I would just say, continue to do what you all have always done and that's staying connected to us as we're thinking about this next tranche of this particular program. But the first wave was highly successful, thanks to our project manager, nina Shelton, wendy Janas, who has been instrumental in helping to shape the program, all of our colleagues who have really rallied around this idea of how we wanted to bring in fresh perspectives and look at new ways of supporting creators, and I'm super excited and as part of the program, we will have many of the participants come here to PBS in Arlington. 

14:48 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
That's great. What a treat. 

14:50 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
It's great. It's great because I get a chance to spend time. I'm usually on the go and busy, but we make that time for them to meet the teams here and meet some of the folks in leadership. Our president and CEO, paula Kruger, has a chance to meet with them, and so it's a great opportunity, and I think, the more that we continue to lean in, to thinking about ways that we can see some of the talent but also provide more exposure for them across our system, I think is just terrific. 

15:20 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, speaking of talent, I read in the summer issue of Bethesda Magazine and it said four words that propelled my career. So can you tell us what those four words were and at what stage were you in your career? 

15:36 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Yeah, I think Sandra, you'll have to correct me, but I did a quick count on my fingers and I think it was. Sylvia can do anything. Tell me if it was something else that I said, but that particular phrase. 

15:50 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
You're absolutely right, sylvia can do anything. And I guess I was like, wow, you know, so at what point were you in your career? Because it sounded like that was really very motivating. 

16:01 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
It was, and it was something that I constantly refer to. It was from a former boss of mine, a manager and someone who I consider a lifelong mentor. His name is Donald Toms and he still consults within the system, but at that time we were working at Discovery together. I met him when we were both at PBS in the early 90s and so we eventually ended up at Discovery and he was speaking with a fellow VP at that time and he said Sylvia can do anything. And I happened to hear it, I was within earshot and it stayed with me because I was probably mid-career at that point. 

16:43
I hadn't quite, you know, moved into the roles that helped me to think about how to parlay the VP role at CPB to where I am today. But I knew that it was important to appreciate storytelling but to also learn about the business of media. And so at that time I was doing operations, work for discovery, and I thought I love the storytelling, I love how you know scripts come together and cuts, but I didn't know much about the business. And so that's when I decided to do the MBA and I knew that I never wanted to work on wall street, I just didn't want to be in the finance industry. But now I say to young people who are just getting started out, I'll say you can have a great idea, but you want to know how you think about funding right, how you think about marketing, how you think about distribution and platforms and audience. And I think sometimes you know we consider the storytelling part of it. 

17:49
But to be well-rounded, no matter which way you want to take your career, knowing the business of media is so important and so I often go back to Sylvia can do anything, and for me it just it gave me extra confirmation that if I really kept my head down, worked really hard, learned as much as I could think about those people who had been instrumental in my journey mentors even if they knew it or if they didn't, I was an observer. 

18:19
So I spend a lot of time looking and modeling people who I think especially women in this business who I think are just phenomenal and really paving the way. And so that was just a phrase that after all these years it's stayed with me and I'm deeply appreciative that having folks you know, like Donald, who took the time to really invest in me, how that was important in my journey. And now that I'm where I am. I try to give that back. I try to think about ways that I can seed and plant little nuggets for people to remember, especially if they're early in their careers, especially women. So important that we support each other in that way. 

19:05 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yes, there's not enough women at the senior executive level making major decisions, and that's one of the reasons why we were so excited to talk to you. And it's more than just speaking to somebody and saying, oh, I know how to direct my film, but what other skills do I need? And so what you're saying it's more than just speaking to somebody and saying, oh, I know how to direct my film, you know, but what other skills do I need? And so what you're saying it's really about the funding, the marketing, it's learning, all the other aspects that go into it. 

19:28 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Yes, absolutely, and I will tell you, I love my job, I love all aspects of it. But someone said you know, wow, you really enjoy meeting with finance. I absolutely do. That's one of my favorite recurring meetings. I love spending time with the finance group because they often bring sets of questions that are not always in sort of the everyday creative and storytelling and development part of it. But I can use a different part of the brain and so it's always one of my favorite meetings that I have and I really enjoy it. 

20:01 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I think that's a first here on Media Maker Spotlight. Somebody saying they like the financing aspect of it. Usually it's no, I have to do more fundraising, or can I get a grant, or how can I fiscal sponsorship. That's pretty funny. Well, good for you. 

20:18 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Sylvia, but what? 

20:20 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
other skills do you think are needed? What else have you learned along the way? You know as skill set that you say, okay, here's what I recommend, or here's what I found is important. 

20:31 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Yeah, I think that's a great question and I think, for me, really spending that time to think about your own leadership journey and how that informs how you lead teams, people management, putting people first. And what is my leadership style? Servant leader, servant leadership and I always say that my job here is to help create pathways for development for really the next generation of leaders and media executives and programming executives, because I've been so fortunate to have people around me who have helped to guide me and provide inspiration, and so it's. I take pleasure, I take great pleasure in being able to spend the time to have a word, you know, have a meeting, spend time on a panel talking to those talented women especially who are coming along in their careers, to just offer a word or two of encouragement that you two can, can do this, but do it with intentionality. So I think leadership is a big piece of it. 

21:41
I think the strategy of all of it is so important. How do you build teams around you that can help contribute, I think, to vibrant conversations where we challenge each other in a respectful way? We get so much more done collaboratively. So for me, I'm very much about how, if we focus on people, the product, the project will come, and so I spend a lot of time with my leadership team thinking about what is it that we need to do to prepare, you know, the folks who have decades and decades more time in their career and making sure they're on a good path, and so we talk a lot about retention. We talk a lot about what it takes to ensure that our teams feel supported, that they can do their best work, and so I love that part of the job as well, and I consider myself a lifelong learner, so I'm always thinking about what is that next opportunity for me to continue to grow and develop, and so that has been wonderful as well. 

22:47 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, it's definitely evident of you're a lifelong learner, just looking at how your career has progressed, but also looking at your education and the master's that you know in the MBA, and that's very exciting to hear that. 

23:00 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Well, it's interesting. I come from Southern Virginia. That's where I was born and raised, and I go back and think about how PBS and public media was so important in my own growth and learning about the world beyond our small community. I come from a very small town in southern Virginia, brunswick County, virginia, and so PBS was one of the few ways that we could get commercial-free access to educational programming, and so I reflect on that quite a bit, and for us, education in our community and our family was just so important, and so I always said, if I have an opportunity to learn, to continue to challenge myself, that I wanted to do it. And so that's been, you know, a good part of my career, that I've always wanted to be on a track of just growing professionally personally, but also continuing to challenge myself and learn. So I think lifelong learning is, for me, always the goal, no matter what form. It may not be in the classroom, but it may be through life experiences, but it's really special special to me. 

24:10 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, is there anything that you can share as far as upcoming programs on PBS, anything that you can say what's happening going forward? Just between us, not that it would get out there, no, no. 

24:23 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
We have so much great content that's coming. As you know, we are deep in election programming, and so our partners at Frontline, at PBS News, at Washington Week with the Atlantic. We have so many wonderful projects that are coming on the horizon that we're really excited about how we think about bridging conversations across communities, across the people who live in our regions, and so we're really excited about some of the work that our partners are doing. Earlier this year, we announced PBS America at 250, which of course, is in 2026 and is coming out of the election coverage. We really want to look at what America means today, tomorrow and for future generations. So we're looking at all of this work in a larger context of national programming, but also locally. How are stations in their local markets thinking about what the 250th of this country means? And so we're doing a lot of work in that space. 

25:31
A lot of new digital content that's coming around. Civics, of course, our dramas continue to excite. We've got a new season of All Creatures, great and Small, that's coming to the set. So we've just been really fortunate again to continue to do a lot across a lot of our different genres. We've got a very vibrant science and climate pipeline, and so we truly are a general audience. We're thinking a lot about arts and culture. So we recently captured Sarah Bareilles at the Kennedy Center Wonderful. So that will be a New Year's Eve special with Sarah Bareilles and friends. So I am so excited for that program. So we've got a lot of exciting things that are coming that we aim to really reflect. You know different content, different ways that people consume media, but have some education, information, but some fun and entertainment along the way with our content. So we're really excited about all of it. 

26:28 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, folks, you're hearing it from Sylvia Bug that you know all this great new stuff that's coming up, so be on the lookout for it. Yes, as I said earlier, women in Filming Video selected you as a 2024 Woman of Vision. Congratulations on this wonderful honor and thank you for accepting and that was a wonderful event at the Women's Museum in DC, nice time. So what did you envision for your career when you first graduated? 

26:57 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
That's a great question. You know, you always think about one piece of the vision, but then, perhaps even before you get into higher ed and thinking about what you're going to major in college, I actually wanted to be a pediatrician when I was much younger. I wanted to help children, so I talked a lot about, oh, I want to be a pediatrician. And then, of course, I go to college and somehow the media bug hit Sylvia Bug. 

27:28
And I became interested in production, storytelling, editing, and I thought, sandra, that I wanted to be a reporter. Actually, early on in my career I thought, oh, I will be a reporter, an on-air reporter. And no one said well, sylvia, you can't really start in a major market Like you, don't just start there, you're probably going to have to go to a smaller market. And at that time I you know, I'm from Virginia, as I said and so I thought, oh, you know, I don't know that I want to be that far away from home. And then I said well, you can do a lot behind the camera, you don't have to be on camera. 

28:07
And so the first job that I had in media was thanks to the Washington Post, because PBS was hiring for administrative assistants. They had two positions open. One was in research, now known as business intelligence, and the second was in programming and scheduling, to assist the head of scheduling. And I thought, huh, programming, or research Programming, sounds a lot more interesting. So I applied for that job and I got an interview, and back then we didn't have job boards online, it was literally we flipped through the classifieds, the job section of the Washington Post. You sent in your resume and I remember those days Exactly Not too long ago. 

28:54
And your typing test Typing, yeah. And I had a cover letter and it was typed and I had it on the nice card paper and you know all that printed it out and everything. And so early on it was really, oh, I want to be a reporter. And then I thought there's so many other career paths that you can think about behind the scenes and so for me that's how it evolved and I could not be happier that I went down that path and was able to stay a little bit closer to home, to family. 

29:28
But really sort of experience, I think, the world through PBS and public media, because some of my early jobs were really on the programming side but I got to screen all of the major series before it went on air on PBS. 

29:44
We have screeners, program evaluators, so I was in a program evaluator at one point so I could watch all of the American Experience episodes, know the nature. I was fascinated and so for someone who had come from a small Southern Virginia town, it exposed me to the world and so that's why I've always had a deep appreciation and fondness for public media and PBS, because had it not been for PBS, I don't know what path you know I would have taken, because for me, this was so aligned with my own passions and thirst for knowledge and being a lifelong learner, and so when I think about the content that we provide, that is the goal that people can be educated, informed and maybe, you know, entertained a little bit along the way. So it's really been fascinating. I've had such a great time and could not think of more important work at this time to do on behalf of the American people. 

30:44 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
We are so glad that you followed this path and not the path of being a reporter, so thank you. And also we just want to say thank you to Sylvia Bug. You're the 2024 Women in Revision honoree and we want to thank you for joining Media Maker Spotlight. 

31:03 - Sylvia Bugg (Guest)
Thank you so much, Sandra. It's been my pleasure to be with you. Thank you for having me. 

31:08 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Now to learn more. You can go to wwwpbsorg and find out about all these wonderful programs that you will be watching, and then you will be contributing. 

31:23 - VO (Host)
Thanks for listening to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video. To learn more about WIF, visit w-i-f-f-v-vorg. I F as in Frank V. As in Victor dot org. This podcast is created by Sandra Abrams, candice Block, brandon Ferry, tara Jabari and Jerry Reinhart, and edited by Michelle Kim and Inez Perez, with audio production and mix by Steve Lack Audio. Subscribe. To continue learning from more amazing media makers, please visit MediaMakerSpotlightcom for more information.