Award-winning public media CEO recalls early years at Tennessee Tech: “Without that university, I wouldn’t be here”
Tennessee Tech University alumna Becky Magura accepts the inaugural Patrick Butler
National Advocacy Award from America’s Public Television Stations in Washington, D.C.
on Feb. 26, 2025. Photo by Phil Humnicky/America’s Public Television Stations.
Tennessee Tech University alumna and Nashville PBS President and CEO Becky Magura
is the 2025 winner of the inaugural Patrick Butler National Advocacy Award from America’s Public Television
Stations (APTS).
In presenting her with the award, APTS leadership heralded Magura as “a tireless advocate
for public broadcasting” who “shines a light on the vital role local public television
stations play in the fabric of their communities.”
The high-profile honor, named for APTS’s longest-serving former president and CEO,
is the latest in a series of accolades for the Emmy Award-winning broadcaster and
public media icon—continuing a career journey that she says was made possible in part
because of Tennessee Tech.
“The opportunity to work in public media is such a passion for me, and it started
at Tennessee Tech,” Magura said on a 2023 episode of Tech’s “College Town Talk” podcast.
“I'm not sure I would have this career if it weren't for Tech.”
A Cookeville native and first-generation college graduate, Magura earned her degree
in curriculum and instruction from the College of Education and Human Sciences in
1980. She went on to earn a master’s degree in the same field the following year.
From there, Magura embarked on a storied 40-year career at WCTE Central Tennessee
PBS in Cookeville, starting as the station’s first student intern and culminating
as president and CEO.
“I really was interested in making that connection between media and education,” Magura
said. “And without some really caring Tech administrators and faculty who knew that
the station was going to open right there on the campus … I don’t know that I would
have had that opportunity.”
Professor Jerry Ayers presents Becky Magura with a scholarship from the Tennessee
Association for Young Children in 1980. Photo courtesy of Tennessee Tech University
Archives.
Among the faculty mentors who helped connect Magura to the station where she would
cement her legacy as a public media champion were fellow trailblazing women like Rebecca
Quattlebaum, former dean of graduate studies and extended education, and Mary Ayers,
former professor of early childhood education.
Over her decades at WCTE, Magura met broadcasting legends like Mr. Rogers and interviewed
governors, senators and four Tennessee Tech presidents. She recalled songstress Brenda
Lee, author Anne Lamott and the late peace activist Hector Black among the interviewees
who most impacted her.
“You’ve just got to make the most of the opportunity to capture who we are as humans
and what we can learn from each other,” Magura said of her approach to interviews.
In 2021, Magura decided she had more to learn, too, when she stepped away from the
only workplace she had known to take on a new role as president and CEO of Nashville
PBS, one of only 40 major market stations in the PBS family.
Becky Magura is pictured with Former U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander for a 2021 taping of
her WCTE show “One on One with Becky Magura.”
“I knew I was at that place in my career where I was ready for one more opportunity
to be a transformational leader,” Magura said. “It has such a tremendously talented
staff, but also an abundant resource of studios and location. And it's a major market
station … the only one in Tennessee.”
In less than four years at Nashville PBS, Magura and her team established two new
24/7 broadcast channels, launched two new regional series, oversaw a full rebrand
from “Nashville Public Television” to “Nashville PBS,” and implemented a comprehensive
three-year strategic plan.
While that whirlwind pace would be tiresome to many, Magura comes from a long line
of accomplished women undaunted by challenges. Her beloved late aunt Ruth Phipps graduated
with honors from Tech at the age of 70—not because she needed a degree for career
purposes, but simply for her own feeling of accomplishment.
Magura also served on Tech’s Alumni Association Board of Directors for 20 years before
stepping away in 2023. There, she helped advocate for first-generation students like
herself and lifelong learners like her aunt.
“Without that university, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be who I am. There's no way,”
Magura said. “When you grow up in a rural community, the opportunities that you gain
by having access to higher education will forever change you. So, I'm so grateful
to Tennessee Tech, and I will always be a Golden Eagle.”
Viewers in the Nashville area can watch Magura at 8 p.m. CT on Fridays, where she
hosts the weekly interview show “Clean Slate with Becky Magura.” Learn more or watch
online at www.wnpt.org.