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Stations That Air More Tha 3 Hours Of E/I Programming?

DToTheJ

DToTheJ

We all know that, as required by the FCC, broadcast stations must carry at least three hours of "E/I" (educational and instructional) programming between a certain timeframe throughout the week. Of course, most of them tend to schedule the minimum three and move on with their regular programming.

But are there any broadcast stations - you know, aside from any 24/7 Qubo channels - that actually air more than the required three hours of E/I programming?
 
We might want to exclude Public Television also. They more than meet their requirement in a day or two on average on their main channel alone. Also, the national religious channels (TBN & Daystar) seem to fill their Saturday mornings up with enough shows to cover the minimum in all time zones.

The major network stations here in the Seattle market pretty much hit the minimums.
But to me, an even bigger question is how stations are playing fast and loose with this E/I stuff. Locally, KCPQ (FOX-Tribune) runs a big Saturday morning block of Degrassi - a show which carries a PG rating. That, to me, indicates the show was not intended to meet the FCC's mandate as it isn't specifically designed for the 16 and under crowd. I've never felt that show was intended to be "educational and informational" to begin with.

And then there's FOX's "This Week In Baseball," which to me is nothing more than marketing. I'll leave it to the rest of you to weigh its value, or lack thereof.
 
Joe_Capitano said:
But to me, an even bigger question is how stations are playing fast and loose with this E/I stuff. Locally, KCPQ (FOX-Tribune) runs a big Saturday morning block of Degrassi - a show which carries a PG rating. That, to me, indicates the show was not intended to meet the FCC's mandate as it isn't specifically designed for the 16 and under crowd. I've never felt that show was intended to be "educational and informational" to begin with.
Click to expand...

Degrassi was specifically marketed to stations as meeting the E/I requirements -- so it isn't just KCPQ that treats it as meeting the E/I requirement, but pretty much every station that runs it.
 
Jim said:
Degrassi is "Educational and Information", since it show "Life" in another country, eh? ::)
Click to expand...

That, and the fact that every episode is a "very special episode" of the same caliber as those afterschool specials. Of course, that can be said of the entire Degrassi franchise.
 
I know before the CW sold their children's block time to 4Kids, that network specifically cast the first hour of their block on Saturday mornings for E/I programming; in combination with that those CW affiliates (like many of those for Sinclair) then aired the 2 1/2 hours a week of the DiC E/I block on weekdays. Though I wouldn't call "Archie's Weird Mysteries" educational in any sense.

But there is one oddity I know of...WLUK in Green Bay airs "Little House on the Prairie" at 1pm every weekday and uses it to suffice their E/I, so they get five hours every week. That's all they've claimed for E/I in the last few years outside of TWiB and Under the Helmet when they air, along with the inane "Magical DoReMi" and "Trollz" shows during the era of 4Kids on Fox, which gave them six hours at one time.

I also remember that there were a few stations that programmed the entire day with kids shows and more than met their E/I requirements before Nick and Disney washed them right out of the business. Smile for a Child is pretty much packed with E/I, meanwhile, and I think TBN has used that to make an argument to pre-empt on their main signals for their Praise-a-Thons in the last few years.
 
I think Fox still runs children's fare on Saturdays... How much of this programming is "E/I"? I ask because the fact that a Fox station is loading up on "Degrassi" reruns to fulfill its requirements has me wondering...

Meanwhile, I do believe the "bigger 3" networks rely on shows mostly E/I on Saturday. NBC is straight-up Qubo, and ABC airs Disney shows as well as the non-E/I "Power Rangers" - and I only know this because these channels happen to be on at a local gym sometimes on Saturdays, and so I am a "hostage viewer"...
 
DToTheJ said:
I think Fox still runs children's fare on Saturdays... How much of this programming is "E/I"? I ask because the fact that a Fox station is loading up on "Degrassi" reruns to fulfill its requirements has me wondering...
Click to expand...


Fox airs nothing on the network that's E/I, it's all left to the affiliate. They're contract with 4Kids ended shortly after it started with the CW and now Fox airs 2 hours of infomercials as "Weekend Marketplace" on Saturday Mornings.
 
And you have to factor in the Fox O&O's with their own "Good Day" local morning shows to compete with "Today" et al., that air their own Saturday morning shows.
 
In Columbus Ohio WCMH airs over three hours of E/I programming. On 4.1 they air NBC Qubo on Saturdays. Then their digital sub channel airs the RTV block of E/I programming.

I'm including them as one since they used the same transmitter/tower.
 
Stations are required to air three hours of E/I per subchannel. If WCMH has two subchannels (4-1 and 4-2) and is airing 6 hours, then they're not airing extra E/I and shouldn't count.

- Trip
 
WCMH only have one digital subchannel that is 4.2. 4.1 is there main channel.

Digital subchannels are X.3 to X.5. X.6 if one station is able to squeeze an audio only feed.

The ATSC format as you should known allows multicasting. Using one tower. This isn't the T-DVB system. Provide the FCC links to prove that these are two seperate broadcast.
 
Trip,
You failed to proved to me that WCMH 4.1 as an subchannel. WCMH doesn't consider 4.1 as an subchannel. The FCC list WCMH digital signal as one broadcast stream. Plus Radio Info and Wikipedia doesn't regulate the public airwaves.

Provide me with the FCC links.
 
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