Radio show helps grad student with internship
Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 2:21PM By Jessica Pickens
Combine one Winthrop grad student, a sock monkey and a library of 9,000 songs, and the result is WINR’s radio show “Marginally Known.”
Social work graduate student Tammy Fesperman isn’t in the broadcast field but has radio experience since middle school.
“When I was in middle school, I would call up radio stations and request music like The Doors and record it,” Fesperman said. “I’ve always dug music. Music is really part of our culture.”
Fesperman has been in graduate school since 2003. After finishing her undergraduate degree at Phiper College in North Carolina, she went to UNC-Greensboro wanting to get her master’s in forensics.
“I blew out my shoulder so I wasn’t able to continue with that degree,” she said.
After transferring to UNC-Charlotte for school counseling but finding that few counseling jobs exist North Carolina, Fesperman came to Winthrop for a master’s in social work.
She has 90 hours in graduate school and is over-educated, Fesperman said.
The name of the WINR show “Marginally Known” comes from Fesperman’s work in social work and grad school.
“The name comes from writing papers for graduate school, so I thought of margins on paper,” she said. “I also thought of marginalized groups that I work with in social work.”
“Marginally Known” features any and all music including independent music, Motown and movie soundtracks. March was National Social Workers month, and the show featured music created by different ethnic groups, such as Native American and Israeli pop music.
Most WINR slots are two hours, but Fesperman enjoyed broadcasting so much she requested to do three hours.
“Two hours went by really fast,” she said. “I wanted to do four hours because it’s so much fun and I’ve gotten so much out of it.”
Enjoyment isn’t the only benefit Fesperman gets from her radio work.
“I do an internship where I work with young boys,” she said. “The radio show has really helped me project my voice and communicate with them a lot more. My supervisor has said I have gotten much better as well.”
Fesperman sees the radio show as another learning experience.
“I have my fingers in lots of pies, because you never stop learning,” she said. “The day I say I’m an expert is the day when I stop learning.”
“Marginally Known” is featuring a contest until Thursday, April 1. “Tenacious Tammy,” as she is known on the radio, asks for students to help name her sock monkey. The monkey will be traveling with her this summer and will wear the chosen name on his shirt. Fesperman will pick the top 10 names and then roll a dice. Whichever number comes up wins.
Listen to “Marginally Known” from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Fridays on campus channels 99 or 20 or listen in live stream on winrfm.com.
