Local stations scheduling kids' shows while kids are at school.

[AKA]

When local commercial stations were still in the business of programming cartoons and other kids' shows, their scheduling seemed to be slightly on the peculiar side, at least when I was growing up in Spokane. Let me give you an example:

Take a look at this schedule from the 1993-1994 television season. Elementary school in Spokane typically runs from 9 am to 3 pm, so why would stations schedule children's programming to air when their target audience couldn't watch it?

Here, KAYU aired TaleSpin at 8:30. What kid, other than those sick at home or who could program a VCR, could watch the show? Those who hadn't arrived at school should certainly have been be en route.

Later in the day, Power Rangers airedat 2:30, followed by Tom & Jerry Kids. Unlike TaleSpin, which was syndicated, these two shows were Fox Network programs. But both were still aired when school-aged kids couldn't watch. Seems like a waste of airtime (and ad purchases) to me.

Over on KHQ, both of their kids' shows aired before school was dismissed for the day. And The Flintstones (KXLY) had been a 3 pm institution in Spokane for several years. I remember arriving home from school just in time to catch Fred pounding on the door, screaming for Wilma to let him in.

This type of scheduling can be found in schedules going back many years. What was the justification for it? "We don't make money off these shows, so who cares when we put then on"? If so, why bother to buy them in the first place? Is this one of the many factors that led to kids' shows being phased out?

 

[nocomradio]

That is very interesting now that you mention it.

I remember some of those shows run during the day as well, but keep in mind that many of those oldies like Tom and Jerry were really never meant for kids originally. Same with the Warner Brothers stuff too. Some of the others later on may have been, but at the point they were running in the afternoon they may well have been just filling a space.

Nowadays, it really is a mixed bag, and a weekday trip to the grocery store or other place mid-day is full of children that I'd think should be in school. With all the home-schooling though, I guess that isn't the same.

 

[Mario500]

Since many animated cartoons were really made to appeal to folks of any age, I believe the timeslots for cartoons during school hours made sense for adults and children who happened to be home during the daytime to watch or hear them and folks who programmed their VCRs to record the cartoons. The same goes for programs made especially for children.

 

[TexasTom]

To some degree, this was standard practice in a lot of markets -- the typical independent station in almost any sized market seemed to typically run their morning kids' block until 9 AM. I used to wonder about that myself, but figured that the shows at the tale end of the block would typically get watched by preschoolers, since that is who would still be home.

As for the afternoon block starting before 3 PM...that was a little more mixed. You can look at schedules in some markets going back into the seventies and see that some markets had kids' blocks that started as early as 2 PM in the afternoon. More often, though, it was a 3 PM starting time for a long time.

But as more shows became available in barter syndication in the 1980s, I think that stations saw their kids blocks fill up -- bluntly, they had too many shows to fit into the traditional independent kids' blocks of 7 to 9 AM and 3 to 5 PM, so they started adding a little bit onto those blocks to allow them to run the additional shows.

As for KHQ-TV -- I think by this time they were probably burning off their contracts on those shows as they prepared to get out of the weekday afternoon kids' business. Only a year earlier, those shows had been running from 3 to 5 PM.

 

[cd637299]

The Flintstones was originally a prime time cartoon. The first seasons had appeal to all ages---then came Pebbles, later Bamm-Bamm, then Hoppy, and the great Gazoo---then it was *really* geared for the young'uns. Yet, until it ended first-run in 1966, it was still in primetime.

I believe that WGRZ 2 in Buffalo showed the 'Stones at 12 noon weekdays not long ago, maybe the early 90s....but that might strictly have been a summer thing.

cd

 

[briancraig]

Wasn't Bozo on weekdays at Noon on WGN during its "golden" era?

 

[Mario500]

Wasn't Bozo on weekdays at Noon on WGN during its "golden" era?

Yes, from 1960 until 1980.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Some schools in the same area often had different schedules, some may have started at 7am and ended at 2PM while others started at 8AM and ended at 3PM, I guess they aired the lower rated shows at the end of the morning block or at the beginning of the afternoon block, some kids shows would air as late as 5PM or as early as 5AM. In some places, schools would dismiss students for lunch and start again after lunch. Did any station changes the schedule during times when schools were out (summer, winter break), where I was the schedule remained the same throughout the year

 

[wffm78]

Shoot...I can remember when our local indies scheduled kids shows during the noon hour (back in the early 70's when both stations signed on in late morning), and then the afternoon. In Cleveland in the late 70's, WUAB would change programs for the summer (Lost in Space, and the Munsters made appearances in the typical cartoon hours), even though neither show was a "kids" program. This happened when the competing indy, WKBF signed off in the mid 70's. Since this left Cleveland with only one indy, they probably needed to do this to clear all the shows they owned.

 

[Wright County Guy]

There was a time when kids went home for lunch, so noontime kiddie fair was popular. In the Twin Cities, "Lunch with Casey Jones" was an institution.

 

[KeithE4]

Wasn't Bozo on weekdays at Noon on WGN during its "golden" era?

Back in that era, some kids went home for lunch (myself included). That's why some stations - WGN with Bozo's Circus and WTTV with Lunchtime Theater and, later, Cowboy Bob, but probably others as well - ran kids shows at noon.

 

[LKellerIII]

Baby boomers from Los Angeles (and probably people as young as their early 50s) will remember Sheriff John's Lunch Bridgade on KTTV from Noon to 1:00 from 1952 to 1970 - long after most local kids' hosts had left the air. He ran cartoons of course, and he read the names of kids having their birthdays who sent their name in, then sang his birthday song. Lots or reminders to have good habits, brush your teeth, etc.

The host was John Rovick, who (like most kids' hosts in those days) doubled as one of the station's announcers.

I would watch during the summer, or when I was home sick. Mr. Rovick is long retired, but still with us at age 92. He even has a Facebook page (probably set up by old fans).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriff_John

 

[Tim L]

There was a time when kids went home for lunch, so noontime kiddie fair was popular.  In the Twin Cities, "Lunch with Casey Jones" was an institution. 

As was Captain Penny on WEWS-TV 5 Cleveland..I have some audio from May 24, 1963 that has Ron Penfound (Captain Penny)  doing the booth announcing from about 9:30 AM till Noon, then his afternoon show from 12:10-1PM in full train regalia, (I have the audio from 9AM-2:30 PM).  He then would host another cartoon show in suit and tie from 5PM-6:30 PM..

He was at WEWS from 1955-71, then retired to New England and then Naples, Florida and  did tv/radio work at those stops before passing away in 1974..

 

[bpatrick]

I've seen some issues of TV Guide (mainly Western New York State),
with the Buffalo stations included, from the late '70s and early '80s,
and "The Flintstones" appears to have aired at noon year-round on
WGRZ.

In Dallas, KTVT used to have a half-hour of cartoons from 12:30-1 PM.

And wasn't there a show in Chicago in the '50s called "Noontime Comics"
with Uncle Johnny Coons? I know he had a network show on CBS, then
on NBC, from 1954-56.

Atlanta's Ch. 11 had one around the same era called "Miss Boo," which
aired, IIRC, at 12:30 PM.

 

[AKA]

The Flintstones was originally a prime time cartoon. The first seasons had appeal to all ages---then came Pebbles, later Bamm-Bamm, then Hoppy, and the great Gazoo---then it was *really* geared for the young'uns. Yet, until it ended first-run in 1966, it was still in primetime.

I believe that WGRZ 2 in Buffalo showed the 'Stones at 12 noon weekdays not long ago, maybe the early 90s....but that might strictly have been a summer thing.

cd

I realize that The Flintstones was originally a prime time show geared toward adults (especially during that first few seasons), but the syndicated repeats were definitely marketed toward the kiddies in the '80s and '90s.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

From roughly 1953 to 1963, WBZ-4 in Boston ran a local children's show with Bob "Big Brother" Emery from 12:15 to 12:45 P.M. weekday afternoons (after a 15-minute Noon newscast; at the time the only local Noon TV newscast in New England).

For most of the year, it was targeted at preschoolers; and to slightly older children during school vacations and the the Summer months.

Eventually, Emery (who had one of the first, if not the first, network TV chldlren's shows on DuMont beginning in 1947) moved to a late-afternoon slot with "Clubhouse 4", a show aimed at slightly older (school-aged) kids.

 

[cwf1701]

Some schools in the same area often had different schedules, some may have started at 7am and ended at 2PM while others started at 8AM and ended at 3PM

In my area in Detroit, Middle/Jr./Sr. High started at 8:00AM and elementary School started at 9:00AM. Also in many districts, you had Half-day Kindergarten (9:00-11:30 and 12:30-3:00).