A Smooth Broadcast Operator, Melissa Jellie ’14 Is Enjoying The Varied Fruits Of Her Dream Job
As a broadcast operations manager, where detail is everything, Melissa Jellie ’14 likens her role to solving “a different puzzle every day.”
“My brain, work style, and calm demeanor are perfect for this role,” says Jellie, a Charlestown, N.H., native who earned film production and criminal justice degrees at Keene State.
Not everyone finds their perfect job, but Jellie did at New Hampshire PBS (NHPBS), formerly N.H. Public Television.
“I remember always being fascinated by what happens behind the scenes of everything I watched, from making content to how networks worked. I wanted to take part in every aspect that I could, and I wanted to be able to tell real people’s stories.”
New Hampshire PBS offers information, stories, and entertainment over five channels—the main NHBS channel, EXPLORE, WORLD, CREATE, and PBS KIDS, which features curriculum-based entertainment. Content is also broadcast online and on the PBS Video App.
It is Jellie’s responsibility to ensure that programs air seamlessly for the viewer.
Jellie grew up in a family of NHPBS viewers. Her father, Stephen, took the family on hikes, and they enjoyed nature programs. Her mother, Peggy, was a sous chef, so the family routinely watched shows about cooking.
“But much of my childhood nostalgia revolves around the kids’ NHPBS programming,” Jellie says. In particular, she remembers the “gentle lessons” of the Canadian children’s show The Big Comfy Couch, a prop comedy series about a clown and her doll.
A Keene State education is about much more than completing tasks in the classroom. As the state’s liberal arts college, Keene State prioritizes hands-on and experiential learning; 59 percent of its students participate in at least one internship during their time as an Owl.
I remember always being fascinated by what happens behind the scenes of everything I watched, from making content to how networks worked. I wanted to take part in every aspect that I could, and I wanted to be able to tell real people’s stories.”
– Melissa Jellie ’14
For journalism and film majors, that can include working for the college’s student-run newspaper; learning in the KSC-TV News studio as a reporter, anchor, audio engineer, producer, or director; or studying on attachment with an established media partner such as The Keene Sentinel newspaper, WMUR television, or NH Public Radio.
Jellie interned at FACT TV, a public-access TV station in Bellows Falls, Vermont, that airs locally produced programming, during the summer before her senior year at Keene State.
After graduating, she worked at public-access television stations in Vermont and Massachusetts before returning to her home state to work at NHPBS.
“I toured KSC because it was affordable, but when I saw the Media Arts Center, I was all in,” Jellie says. “The building and all the high-tech production tools were everything I wanted. I also loved that it was a small community in a great and familiar city.
“I’ve spoken to some film classes at Keene State about my path to PBS. I hope what I said left a mark on some students about all the opportunities that this field offers, that are not in Hollywood, and that they may not have considered.”
Before she arrived at NHPBS, her role was outsourced, so she takes pride in helping to shape the position over her three years with the nonprofit. “People I looked up to in that process, I now collaborate and work with them on the same level, and that feels nice.”
Melissa joined several clubs while she was a student at Keene State, including Campus Ecology and Acting Out Improv, and volunteered at an area homeless shelter.
Her husband, Cory, is a 2013 Keene State graduate who majored in environmental studies and works for the state’s Department of Environmental Services.
Asked to describe herself in one word, Mlissa says, “Funny, because I think I am.”
Asked what comes next, she says, “I hope to stay in New England and grow in my public media role. It was my goal, and I’m doing it. … It’s a dream.”
Asked what she would tell a young person considering college, she says, “Do what you’re passionate about, and if you go, get out and meet people. Find clubs you’re interested in and join them. That is where I made some of my best friends.”
Asked to complete a fill-in-the-blank sentence, she writes:
“I brought a chaotic theater kid interested in film to Keene State, and I left the college a chaotic theater kid interested in film with a degree.”
A headline atop a profile of Jellie on the NHPBS website reads:
Jellie’s Jam: Smooth Viewing
Four words, playfully arranged, that say it all.
Learn more about Keene State’s film studies program
