Mike Bisceglia & Jayme Swain - "Stories Have The Power To Transform"

"STORIES HAVE THE POWER
TO TRANSFORM"

Michael Bisceglia
President - Stauer Watch and Jewelry Company
Chairman - Virginia Foundation for Public Media 

Jayme Swain
CEO - Virginia Foundation for Public Media
President VPM

Michael Bisceglia and Jayme Swain know how to tell a story, and they believe that stories connect us to the past, and to a glimpse of the future. They are using the power of storytelling to educate, inform and entertain 2,000,000 viewers and listeners through the Virginia Foundation for Public Media and its member stations. 

In November, Michael will tell the story of how his experience growing 4 start-ups to more than $100 million sales has led to his current role leading the largest public media company in central Virginia. He will also talk about why he thinks that role is so important. Jayme will talk about the future of public braodcasting and how VPM is changing to join in that future.

Michael is a successful entrepreneur who is currently the Chairman of the Virginia Foundation for Public Media (formerly the Community Idea Stations) . VFPM owns many Virginia PBS and NPR stations and manages a $190 million endowment. His latest business venture is Stauer Watch and Jewelry Company, one of the largest gemstone dealers in the world. Last year, Staurer purchased more than 9 million carats of amethyst, 1 million carats of emeralds and 500,000 carats of tanzanite. 

Jayme Swain is a former Deputy Director of U.S. News and World Report and spent 11 years at PBS where she most recently served as Senior VP of Strategy and Operations. As She now oversees the VPM network of radio and TV stations.

YOUR HOST

23 Sesame Street

We have visited the home of Bert and Ernie at the VPM facilities located on Sesame Street twice before, and this will be our second visit to their spacious Studio A which is used for internal production and is also rented to outside companies and organizations by VPM Productions.

VPM (Formally known as WCVE) is the largest locally owned and operated public media company in Central Virginia. As Virginia’s home for public media, VPM provides the PBS and NPR programming coupled with a strong set of community-based programs and services.     

VPM includes public television stations VPM PBS, VPM Plus, VPM PBS KIDS, lifestyle channel VPM Create and international program channel VPM Worldview. VPM also includes Richmond public radio stations VPM News (88.9 FM) and VPM Music (107.3 FM, 93.1 FM and 88.9-HD2). In the Northern Neck (89.1 FM) and Southside Virginia (90.1 FM), listeners receive a combination of the news and music stations.

VPM Productions also offers an array of video production services including the production of videos both in studio and on-location using their Mobile Production Unit. They provide professional produced Internet/Web based video social media platforms, commercials for broadcast stations, and can produce a variety of long and short form videos.