Shaun Townley has spent much of his professional life telling other people’s stories. Now, after nearly two decades with WTCI PBS, the Chickamauga native finds himself at the center of one of his own.
In September, Townley stepped into the role of interim president and CEO of the Chattanooga public television station, succeeding Bob Culkeen, a mentor who had long encouraged him to consider a future in leadership. The transition came sooner than Townley expected, but it also brought him to a place for which his years in television had gradually prepared him.
“Bob made it clear that he planned to retire someday, and he’d often tell me, ‘You might be running a station like this one day,’” Townley recalls. “He saw leadership potential in me and encouraged me to pursue it. He thought I’d be good at it.”
Even with that encouragement, the change caught him off-guard.
“I didn’t expect him to leave as early as he did, so I was shocked when it happened. But I quickly realized that I felt prepared and supported.”
A fascination with storytelling
Townley grew up in Chickamauga, Georgia, graduating from Gordon Lee High School in 1995. His mother was a psychologist and educator, while his father, Chris Townley, practiced law in Northwest Georgia.
“I grew up loving movies and television. I was naturally drawn to them as a kid,” he says. “But coming from Chickamauga, I never thought a career in that world was possible. I didn’t know anyone in the industry, and you tend to gravitate toward careers you’re familiar with growing up.”
His father, who died in 2020, helped nurture that interest by introducing him to films he might never have discovered on his own. Townley remembers watching older movies with him, including “Amadeus,” Milos Forman’s acclaimed film about Mozart. His father also loved music, another enthusiasm that would become a lasting part of Townley’s life.
Television offered its own formative experiences. Like many children of his generation, Townley grew up watching “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” programs whose influence he would come to appreciate more as an adult.
After high school, he enrolled at Rhodes College in Memphis, where he majored in English and met his future wife, Erin.
After graduating in 1999, Townley followed Erin north while she attended graduate school at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Looking for a way into television, he contacted the alumni office at Rhodes and asked whether it could connect him with graduates working in the industry.
A few telephone calls later, he had secured an internship with “Charlie Rose,” the nationally televised interview program produced in New York City.
“As a production coordinator, I had the chance to meet some famous people,” Townley recalls. “Here I was, a kid from Chickamauga, talking to people I’d grown up watching and admiring. It was an exciting place to be.”
He spent approximately seven years with the program, learning the intricacies of television production while working alongside people who shared his enthusiasm for thoughtful conversation and compelling stories.
The road home
By 2007, Townley was ready for a change. He and Erin wanted to return to the Chattanooga area, and he began exploring opportunities closer to home.
He contacted Peter DeLin, who was then overseeing production at WTCI, and the conversation turned into a job offer.
“He hired me over the phone,” Townley recalls. “He said, ‘If you can make it back down here, we’ve got a place for you. Your skills sound like a good fit.’”
Townley accepted, beginning a career at WTCI that would span nearly 20 years.
He initially worked on the content side of the station, eventually becoming chief content and engagement officer in 2024. Along the way, he helped develop programming that reflected his conviction that stories need not be grand in scale to deserve an audience.
One of his proudest accomplishments is “Greater Chattanooga,” an Emmy Award-winning documentary series built around shorter stories about the people, places and experiences that define the region.
Townley conceived the series more than a decade ago because he saw a gap between the stories he wanted to tell and the traditional demands of broadcast television.
“I felt like we didn’t have an outlet for all the stories we wanted to tell,” he explains. “Broadcast programs had to fill a half hour or an hour, and not every story needed that much time.”
The solution was to produce shorter documentaries that could be distributed digitally and assembled into longer broadcasts, giving the station greater freedom to explore subjects that might otherwise have gone uncovered.
One recent installment examined the history of the Cannonball, the wooden roller coaster at Lake Winnepesaukah that has thrilled generations of visitors. The 10-minute documentary explores the ride’s history and the nostalgia surrounding it.
Other installments have tackled weightier subjects, including homelessness.
Whether exploring an amusement park attraction or a serious social problem, the series reflects Townley’s belief that local stories deserve to be told.
A different kind of responsibility
As Townley’s responsibilities at WTCI expanded, so did his appreciation for the people and partnerships that make its work possible.
Culkeen’s arrival as president in January 2020 provided a particularly memorable example of leadership under pressure. Within weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life, leaving organizations across the community scrambling to respond.
Townley recalls Culkeen driving to the Hamilton County Schools offices, sitting in the parking lot and calling school leadership to offer the station’s assistance. Within a couple of weeks, WTCI was broadcasting live programs with school officials to help families navigate the challenges of learning from home.
“What impressed me about Bob was how he rose to the occasion, setting an example for all of us of what good leadership looks like, especially in a service organization,” he says.
Now leading WTCI’s 13-member staff, Townley is quick to credit his colleagues, including longtime employees whose experience and institutional knowledge have helped the station navigate years of change.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to lead a team of people who approach their work with such joy and passion,” he says. “Not everyone gets to work with that kind of enthusiasm, and it’s a special thing to be part of.”
His appointment also comes at a challenging time for public broadcasting, following the withdrawal of federal funding that had long supported stations across the country. Townley now must consider financial sustainability and organizational priorities alongside the creative and educational work that occupied much of his earlier career.
Although the responsibilities can seem daunting, Townley is encouraged by increased charitable support from the community. For now, he’s focused on strengthening the station’s operations and supporting its employees while the search for a permanent president and CEO proceeds.
He hasn’t ruled out applying for the position himself.
“We’re the community’s PBS station, and we thrive because of its support,” he says. “To those who have never given, we welcome your support. And to those who have supported us over the years, no matter the amount, we simply want to say thank you. You’re the reason we’re able to do what we do.”
Beyond the screen
Away from work, Townley’s interests still reflect the influence of his childhood, particularly his father’s love of music.
An avid record collector, Townley began building his collection while attending Rhodes College, years before vinyl records experienced their modern resurgence.
He remembers discovering an old record player with a roommate, one of the large cabinet-style models with a sliding top. After rescuing it from the trash and getting it into working condition, the two began exploring a nearby establishment filled with thousands of unwanted records.
“He had 20 copies of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ selling for 99 cents apiece,” Townley recalls. “You could walk out of there with an armful of records for next to nothing.”
Townley enjoyed the thrill of discovering unfamiliar music among the rows of albums. His collection now spans a wide variety of genres, and record collecting remains one of his favorite pursuits.
Community involvement also extends beyond his professional responsibilities. Townley serves on the board of the Cherokee Area Council of Scouting America and as a ruling elder at New Hope Presbyterian Church.
His wife, Erin, works in early childhood education at the Creative Discovery Museum, giving the couple a shared appreciation for organizations that serve children and families.
“My family is very supportive of my work,” he says. “My wife works for a nonprofit, too, so community service is part of our lives. We both enjoy being involved with organizations that make a difference.”
The next chapter
Back at WTCI, a small Mister Rogers figure in Townley’s office offers a reminder of where his fascination with television began.
Townley remembers watching Fred Rogers as a child, but he now speaks of the program with an appreciation that goes beyond nostalgia. He admires Rogers’ ability to communicate complicated ideas about emotions, kindness and human relationships in ways that children could understand.
“He had an extraordinary impact on PBS and the country as a whole,” Townley says. “He taught us what it means to be a good neighbor, to treat others with kindness and to talk openly about our feelings.”
Those lessons, he believes, remain relevant, and their influence can still be seen in the educational programming available to children today.
For someone who once doubted that a career in television was possible for a boy from Chickamauga, Townley has come a long way. From the studios of New York City to the president’s office at WTCI, his responsibilities have changed, but his passion for storytelling hasn’t.