NETA’s Greg Tillou to Retire April 15 

Tillou will retire on his 50th anniversary  

On April 15, on his 50th anniversary with NETA, Greg Tillou will retire from his role as senior director of operations. 

Tillou began his career at NETA in 1974, when it was the Southern Educational Communications Association. He started in the mailroom while still in college and quickly became the traffic assistant then traffic manager. Originally from Hamburg, NY, Tillou was a U.S. Air Force aerospace ground power technician, which is what initially brought him to South Carolina. He then attended the University of South Carolina where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in behavior sciences. In the late 1970s, he also began working for South Carolina Educational Television as a master control operator, which he continues to do today.

“Consider everything that has changed in public media and television technology over the last five decades,” said Eric Hyyppa, NETA president. “Greg has seen it all and helped NETA navigate the ever-evolving landscape. His retirement is well-earned, but we will miss him and his wealth of knowledge.”

Tillou is a certified television operator with the Society of Broadcast Engineers and has served on the PBS Traffic Advisory Committee since its creation. He helped coordinate recovery satellite feeds when Telstar 401 was rendered inoperable by a magnetic storm in 1997. Later, he was promoted to director of operations and became the liaison for the Engineering Professional Council, which worked to establish and maintain broadcast standards. Since becoming senior director of operations in 2018, he has also taken on a number of additional roles including facilities manager for NETA’s headquarters in Columbia, SC. 

“When I started in this business, my first show was on 16mm film. We moved to two-inch quad tape and then the tape kept getting smaller and smaller until there was none at all,” said Tillou. “It’s remarkable to think back over fifty years in public television. The technology has changed so many times, but the people have remained steadfast in their commitment to the mission and delivering accessible, educational content.”

He was recently nominated for Current’s Public Media Honor Roll by Maryanne Schuessler and Gayle Loeber. Their nomination, in part, read, “Every program director, traffic manager, broadcast operations person knows the name of Greg Tillou. Since 1974, Greg has been known as the go-to guy. Sun transits, hurricanes, ice storms – [public television operations] people knew ‘Greg at NETA’ could help them restore and maintain their schedule. His clear-eyed problem-solving, his accuracy, his steady reliability, his encyclopedic memory, and his humor are as invaluable as they are intangible.” 

Please join NETA in thanking Tillou for his fifty years of dedicated service to NETA and public media and congratulating him on his upcoming retirement.