Robert J. Shuman?s curiosity for how communities shared news and information grew in, of all places, Indonesia.
Shuman, born in El Centro, Calif., in 1944, was the son of a fighter pilot and spent five years of his childhood outside Jakarta, Indonesia?s capital city.
“I would go to these villages and see such a primitive form of media,” said Shuman, who would observe village meetings and gatherings. “Since then, I?ve always been interested in providing thoughtful and engaging programming to the community.”
Shuman, 62, president and CEO of Maryland Public Television (MPT) since 1996, has built his career on the basic principle that the public deserves local educational television programming.
“For years, we?ve been talking about the viewer becoming the programmer, and that actually is here today,” Shuman said. “We?re finding the viewer has a shorter and shorter attention span, and our job is to look out how we can connect with the audience using all of today?s new media.”
Before he joined MPT, Shuman co-founded and served 10 years as president of The Learning Channel (TLC), a national cable television channel.
TLC was eventually sold to Discovery Communications.
Shuman also founded and was president and CEO of Civic Network Communications Inc., a nonprofit satellite communications network.
Shuman joined MPT at a time when the organization faced some financial issues and had to adapt to technological changes in the way media were presented, said Skip Hinton, president of the South Carolina-based National Educational Telecommunications Association, a professional organization that serves public television licenses across the country.
“He absolutely believes in the mission of the organization, and public television in general,” Hinton said. “He is extremely well-respected in the business because of that approach, and it doesn?t hurt that he?s had success in the past.”
Shuman was recently elected vice chair of the Affinity Group Coalition, an organization devoted to addressing wide issues of interest to public television stations throughout the nation.
He will assume the lead position of the group next year.
“I?m looking forward to working with AGC and making every effort to continue to move public television?s education mission forward,” Shuman said.
Robert J. Shuman
First job: Flipping hamburgers in northern Virginia when I was 15.
Education: Bachelor?s degree in mathematics from Catholic University, master?s in operational resources and computer science from American University
Daily e-mails received: About 75
Daily voicemails received: I don?t know.
Favorite gadget: BlackBerry Pearl
Career objective: Using public media as a tool and service for our community.
Essential Web sites: None, I have too many e-mails to sort through.
Hometown: Born in El Centro, Calif., lived in Montgomery County 30 years
Birth date: Oct. 20, 1944
Original aspiration: I wanted to be a fighter pilot like my dad.
Sports/hobbies: Scuba diving and running
