But attention has been hard to escape recently, after winning the national Gracie Allen Award from American Women in Radio and Television.
Painter-Wakefield began her award-winning radio career at WUNC in 1995. Before this, she was a classical music announcer at Wake Forest University's small campus radio station while studying music history. She sought the job at the prodding of a friend, who told her she had a good radio voice.
"I never thought that I would be going into radio as a career; it was more of 'Well, this is something interesting to do while I'm getting a degree,'" she said.
But after spending years working behind the microphone, Painter-Wakefield still gets nervous about talking to strangers. "I'm quiet and reserved, so to call people, go out, meet people and ask them things takes a lot of energy from me," she said.
But this hesitation has not prevented her from achieving success in her field, as she has received an award that Painter-Wakefield acknowledges modestly.
"I'm getting the idea that it is kind of a big award," she joked. "I think because it's a new project ... (having it) honored so soon is leaving me speechless," she said.
American Women in Radio and Television, now in its 50th year, focuses on supporting the growth of women in the broadcasting field.
Painter-Wakefield won the Gracie Allen Award for "North Carolina Postcards," a program she helped create to highlight average citizens of the state. The "Postcards" are minute-long audio portraits of North Carolinians, aired periodically on Fridays on WUNC.
"I'm trying to get little pieces of North Carolina, things that might be uniquely North Carolina," she said. "But also just people who live in this state, maybe people who do unusual jobs or have some interesting story to tell, and I do like to combine that with sound somehow."
