March 17, 1998

Little hosts festival '98 PBS phone-a-thon

Katie Ward, Staff Writer

While channel surfing on Saturday morning, Appalachian State University students may have recognized a familiar face.

Appalachian’s own student body president, Fernando Little, made his television debut as a spokesperson for the Univeristy of North Carolina Public Television’s Festival  ‘98.
 
Festival ’98 is a month-long pledge drive for the public television station.  Their purpose is to solicit funds in order to keep the station up and running.

The main initiative of this annual event is to “supplement funding to purchase, produce and promote the programming,” said Annette Minozzi, talent coordinator for Festival ’98.

UNC-TV is a non-profit organization receiving 35 percent of their revenue from viewers.

Little was featured during the children’s programming segment in the Sesame Street and Barney time slots.

His main objective was to motivate parents and viewers to call in and pledge.

Little used his time to remind parents that the programs were carefully researched by specialists to determine whether they would be effective for children.  Many parents were unaware that so much thought and planning went into programming, Little said.

Little also mentioned the mission statement of the public televsion network.  They serve to provide quality educational and entertaining programs with a non-commercial format.

“We grew up watching many of these shows, and I think they have a message to offer all ages,” Little said.

While on the air, Little took every possible opportunity to mention Appalachian State.

He related the importance of programs such as Sesame Street to the students’ generation.
“I tried to mention Appalachian State as much as possible, and hopefully the school benefitted,” Little said.

Little admitted that this experience was a little fast-paced for his taste.

“We did not have any cue cards and were required to speak off the top of our heads,” Little said.  “I was a little nervous, but by the fourth segment, it was under control.”

However, Minozzi spoke highly of Little’s performance. “Fernando did a wonderful job. He may have been nervous, but he came off as being under control,” Minozzi said. “He had style, grace and was able to ad-lib very well.”

Little said that this was a beneficial use of his time, and it was nice to be treated like a star for a day.  He also mentioned that the pledge phones rang while he was on the air.

“This made me feel pretty good,” Little said.  “It was a neat experience, and it is good to know that I was a part of keeping  quality programming alive.”
 
“These programs relate to all of us because we were once viewers,” Little said.  “They helped us to learn when we were growing up.”

UNC-TV hopes to raise about $2.5 million during the pledge drive. As of Saturday’s broadcast, they had successfully raised around $1.3 million.

“This pledge drive has been successful in the past, and the goal has always been met,” Minozzi said.

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