Weekday afternoon syndie cartoons on Big Three affiliates in the early '90s

[Tim from Springfield IL]

The "Swan's Crossing" affiliates thread made me wonder. Which Big 3 network affiliates in the early '90s--particularly those in "Un-Foxed" smaller markets during that time--continued to air syndicated cartoons in the afternoons (e.g. "Darkwing Duck," "Chip and Dale," the classics)? This would have been in the dawn of what I call the great '90s talk-show proliferation (with the likes of Ricki Lake, Maury, Vicki Lawrence, Rolonda, etc. debuting their shows and the usually-trashy topics on those programs).

I remember seeing listings during early fall 1992 for eastern Iowa that showed KGAN-2 Cedar Rapids/Waterloo and KIMT-3 (Mason City, IA), both CBS affiliates, airing cartoons after "Guiding Light" ended at 3PM. I don't remember what KGAN aired but I do recall for some reason that KIMT aired "Woody Woodpecker" and "Darkwing Duck" during the 3PM hour (KXLT-47 of Rochester, MN, which signed on in 1987, didn't become the market's first Fox affiliate until 1998). But during an eastern Iowa visit/motel stay in late September 1992 with my family I actually remember seeing a promo for the 3PM afternoon cartoon offering on KGAN--but I still don't recall the show (my guess is that it could have been a Disney syndie 'toon like "Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers," "Darkwing Duck," and the ilk).

Whereas a few hours away in western Illinois where I grew up--within range of both the Peoria and Quad Cities IA/IL affiliates-- cartoons were gone from my local Big 3 stations' afternoon lineups by 1985 at the latest IIRC. I do remember "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" airing on the Peoria ABC affiliate then known as WRAU-19 (which changed to its current WHOI calls Jan. 1, 1985) during summer 1984, and during that time Peoria NBC affiliate WEEK-25 aired "Fat Albert" reruns during that time. (The then-indy WBLN-43 Bloomington/Peoria, now Fox as WYZZ, had signed on in Oct. 1982 and had their fair share of afternoon 'toons). I don't remember if 'toons still aired on the Peoria Big 3's as the '84-85 season began, however. However, in the Quad Cities I remember WQAD-8 (ABC) Moline, IL airing at least He-Man and "Thundercats" during summer 1984 after "General Hospital" (and as a bonus their local version of Romper Room continued until 1986--but bumping the likes of network Family Feud, Edge of Night and/or Ryan's Hope in the QCs). The cartoons on WQAD may have continued into 1985, but I think they were gone from the QC Big 3 by the 1985-86 season--after now-Fox KLJB-18 signed on.

Any other Big 3 affiliates--other than my above Iowa examples--which continued to air kids' cartoons and programming on weekday afternoons after the soaps in the early '90s?

 

[classictvfan]

Thundercats did not debut until the Fall of 1985

 

[crainbebo]

Checked a TV Listing from the Tri-City Herald from about Apr. 1985.

3PM: KXLY 4 Spokane (ABC) (Flintstones (Mon-Tue-Wed-Fri), Thur had a show called My Mother The Witch ???
3:30PM: KNDO 23 Yakima/KNDU 25 Pasco (NBC) had Scooby Doo, followed by He-Man at 4.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Thundercats did not debut until the Fall of 1985

My bad (memory, that is)--but even in that case WQAD did air "Thundercats" when it debuted in fall '85, but I think by the following season the weekday afternoon 'toons were gone from the Big 3 Quad Cities affiliates.

 

[Apollo7979]

In Dayton, WDTN (then an ABC affiliate) aired cartoons from 3pm-4pm (some years also from 4pm-5pm) throughout much of the 80s. I think they dropped cartoons in 1987 when Hour Magazine premiered in the 3pm slot. I remember growing up, Scooby Doo or Woody Woodpecker was on at 3pm followed by Tom & Jerry at 3:30pm. They also ran He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Care Bears in the 4pm hour one year, IIRC. By the way, in case you were wondering, WDTN's relationship with ABC was interesting. General Hospital (and later One Life to Live) wasn't cleared in the Dayton market for many years. Instead, the station opted to carry either kids shows or talk shows. It wasn't until 2002 or 2003 when WDTN began clearing the entire ABC Daytime block.

In the 90s, crosstown NBC affiliate WKEF ran a block of childrens programming when the station reimaged around 1993. Xuxa and Inspector Gadget come to mind, but they may have ran other shows as well. This block also ran in the 3pm hour when NBC gave that time slot back to the affiliates.

 

[TexasTom]

The full two hour "Disney Afternoon" block was running on ABC affiliate KTMF, channel 23, in Missoula, MT in 1992.

That station was fairly typical of the sort of network affiliates that ran weekday afternoon childrens' shows in the early 90s. It was a relatively new station in a three station market, and had no news programming. In that context, they probably figured it was better to have the childrens' market to themselves versus competing for adult viewers against two established VHF competitors.