Sorry, man, but if you'd been about two years later, I could have pointed you to a post I did for Christmas Eve and Day 1979 in the Southern Alabama edition. I would gather, though, that local stations other than WSFA were pretty much similar in their mix of sitcom reruns, cartoons, and Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin between 3:30 and 5:30 during that time period. WSFA kept its kids' show going for much longer than most other stations due to the fact that it was by a large margin the leading station in the Montgomery market (like its sister WIS in Columbia, South Carolina, with weatherman Joe Pinner playing "Mr. Knozit"), and could afford to lose some sponsorships when the FCC came down with the infamous death verdict in '72 banning hosts pitching merchandise to the small fry. In that late '70s period after the collapse of the genre but before Reagan-era deregulation and cable began leveling the playing field, stations like WSFA and WIS could basically do low-rated shows for public service with greater aplomb than their UHF competitors, who had to make every minute of airtime count. It is precisely the LACK of effective competition that enabled "Young World" and "Mr. Knozit" to last as long as they did, contrary to what dereg zealots believe. Just a thought for you there.
Tell you what, I think I'm going to return to doing retros with another day's listing from the Southern Alabama edition from that week in December 1979! Hope that'll be the second-best thing for ya.
