WFFT FOX55 - Fort Wayne, IN (Monday 03/18/1991)

[brettfern]

05:00AM Headline News
06:00AM Rise with Shine
06:30AM Merrie Melodies
07:00AM Froggie's Pad
08:00AM Jim Henson's Muppet Babies
08:30AM Alvin & The Chipmunks
09:00AM 700 Club
10:00AM Success-N-Life
11:00AM Divorce Court
11:30AM Judge
12:00PM Andy Griffith
12:30PM People's Court
01:00PM Love Connection
01:30PM Highway to Heaven
02:30PM Brady Bunch
03:00PM Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers
03:30PM Happy's Place
05:00PM Small Wonder
05:30PM Mr. Belvedere
06:00PM Little House on the Prairie
07:00PM ALF
07:30PM Mama's Family
08:00PM MOVIE - "The Princess Bride" (1987)
10:00PM Star Trek: TOS
11:00PM Family Feud
11:30PM Paid Programming
02:30AM MOVIE - "They Shoot Horses, Don't They" (1969)

 

[Corky Marlowe]

WOW! Old school Channel 55!

"Happy's Place" and its spinoff, "Froggie's Pad", had to be some of the last locally hosted children's shows anywhere...Can't remember exactly when 55 pulled the plug on them, but they both ran for many years.

How many nights did Fox have prime time programming at that point in time?

IMO, their best days were in the late 70's/early 80's (they signed on in late 1977), when the lineup was filled with classic reruns, old movies, and cheesy game shows. They were the first FW station to go 24 hours...Their first shot at all-night programming was during the Blizzard Of '78, when they provided round-the-clock coverage of the storm and its aftermath. (I still remember Kent Hormann standing outside, doing live weather updates, and being pelted with snowballs.) Their first few months on the air, they would list their prime time lineup printed out on a crude character generator. This sometimes produced some odd abbreviations ("A. Hitchcock" for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", for example. They also used to run a holiday movie marathon on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which they obviously had to give up gradually as Fox expanded its programming.

Also, 55 was the original home of "Night Shift With Kevin Ferguson", which amazingly is still on today!!!

 

[adam95]

WOW! Old school Channel 55!

"Happy's Place" and its spinoff, "Froggie's Pad", had to be some of the last locally hosted children's shows anywhere...Can't remember exactly when 55 pulled the plug on them, but they both ran for many years.

How many nights did Fox have prime time programming at that point in time?

IMO, their best days were in the late 70's/early 80's (they signed on in late 1977), when the lineup was filled with classic reruns, old movies, and cheesy game shows. They were the first FW station to go 24 hours...Their first shot at all-night programming was during the Blizzard Of '78, when they provided round-the-clock coverage of the storm and its aftermath. (I still remember Kent Hormann standing outside, doing live weather updates, and being pelted with snowballs.) Their first few months on the air, they would list their prime time lineup printed out on a crude character generator. This sometimes produced some odd abbreviations ("A. Hitchcock" for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", for example. They also used to run a holiday movie marathon on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which they obviously had to give up gradually as Fox expanded its programming.

Also, 55 was the original home of "Night Shift With Kevin Ferguson", which amazingly is still on today!!!

Happy's Place, Froggie's Pad, and Night Shirt were all cancelled in roughly '97 or '98. Happy's Place stayed on the air for a few years after Fox started their two hour afternoon kids block. And as Corky mentioned, Night Shift came back in about '03 or '04 on channel 21. Thanks to the 21/33 merger and digital subchannels, I believe it's on 3 times every weekend.

It seems as though Kent Hormann is the guy who will do anything, anytime, for anyone. He did channel 33 sports (first weeknights, later weekends before channel 33's news dept was closed). He now does minor league baseball announcing on the ESPN radio affiliate, which ironically uses the WKJG call letters that 33 used until about '99 or '00. You'll also see him doing the occasional car commercial. The holiday movie marathon was actually brought back a couple years ago, airing on the digital subchannels of channel 15, and now 33.

 

[Radiofreewill]

...which ironically uses the WKJG call letters that 33 used until about '99 or '00.

Really minor, nit-picky correction here...the WKJG calls stayed on 33 until about April 2003. That's when New Vision Group took over and changed them to WISE (can't remember the reason for it, but I remember thinking "bullcrap" when I heard it on the news that night.

But back to the topic at hand, which is old-school Super 55!

Wasn't Steve Shine the voice of Froggy? Seems like he could pull that off rather easily.