Mount Saint Mary College recently rebooted its longstanding radio station, Knight Radio.
Knight Radio began more than ten years ago as a student club before being given new life by the Mount's Communication, Art, and Digital Media (CADM) program.
To listen visit www.msmc.edu/KnightRadio
The new and improved Mount radio station will be managed by a student under the supervision of Regina Pappalardo, associate professor of Journalism at the Mount, CADM, and David Plotkin, a creative services director at CBS Radio/1010 WINS.
Plotkin, the Mount's radio consultant, has been training CADM students on the radio equipment and assisted two Mount students in starting up their own show.
Ashley Thomaz, a Mount senior with a double major in Public Relations and Media Studies, and Emily Gursky, a junior with a double major in Media Studies and Advertising and Public Relations as well as a minor in Journalism, have recently started hosting their own show, A Little About a Lot with Ashley and Emily.
"So far we have covered topics from Mount news, local Newburgh news, music, celebrity gossip, and anything we have read that piqued our interest," Thomaz explained.
For example, at the end of the fall semester, the students discussed the most mispronounced words of 2021.
"We have fun with different topics, and we might even have a new segment where we shout out our listeners at the end of the show," she added.
Thomaz and Gursky also had the opportunity to observe a broadcast of Annie in the Morning with Ryan, which is a Q92 radio show based in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Thomaz said she found the experience very insightful.
"Being able to see what radio hosts have to do and what they need prepared was eye-opening," she said. "Watching Annie and Ryan do their thing was educating, and I really am grateful that I had the opportunity."
Learning from local professionals and creating their own shows is the kind of hands-on learning that can jumpstart Mount students' careers in the field, Pappalardo said.
"This kind of experience really puts that real-world perspective on everything [the students] have learned in class," she noted. "They...took away a greater appreciation for the amount of work that goes into sounding natural on the radio."
The Mount's CADM programs encompass the study of advertising and public relations, digital media production, graphic design, and journalism. CADM also offers minors in each of these disciplines, as well as in art and film studies. Housed in the Mount's Division of Arts and Letters, CADM programs prepare students for both traditional and emerging professions.