Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Come ON, WTVP!

Why does WTVP find it necessary to change the time of Sesame Street every now and again? Just when we got a nice little schedule going on weekday mornings that was really beneficial for me getting ready for work in the morning . . . WTVP moved Sesame Street from 7 am to 9 am. Not helpful.

Our nice little schedule hinged on Elmo's World coming on Sesame Street every morning at 7:40 am. I get up at 6:45, take a shower, and feed the dog. The kids get out of bed at 7 am, I get them dressed, comb their hair, and we all have breakfast by 7:30. This is perfect timing for them to have faces washed, teeth brushed, shoes on, and go to the living room for Elmo at 7:40. From 7:40 to 8:15 was my personal time. That was just enough time to iron my clothes, get dressed, do my hair, put on make-up, accessorize, and get my stuff ready for the day.

Elmo's World, followed by 15 minutes of Curious George, was my savior. Sure, after Elmo's World was over, my son would lose interest and find something else to play with, usually standing with me in the bathroom while I put make-up on. But my daughter would continue to watch Curious George, thereby eliminating the potential for disagreements between the two of them which take time out of my schedule to resolve.

But now, WTVP has decided to put Curious George on at 7 am, Sid the Science Kid at 7:30 am, Super WHY! at 8 am, Clifford the Big Red Dog at 8:30 am, and Sesame Street at 9 am. Why, I ask you . . . WHY? (And that's not Super WHY - just WHY?!?!) My kids have absolutely no interest in Sid the Science Kid and Super WHY - they just don't. They are 21 months and 3 years old. Sesame Street is their thing!

This 15-30 minutes of TV is the only TV my children watch on a regular basis. I realize there are other children's shows on cable at this time, but none that I feel like letting my kids watch. Or that they will actually watch. Or that don't have commericals.

In the middle of me having a fit about this today, it took me some time to remember I can get Sesame Street on On Demand. Unfortunately, to get to Elmo's World, I have to fast forward for 40 minutes of the show, which takes about 5 minutes out of my morning, so . . . just damn!

Damn . . . Damn . . . Damn!

I am sure that there are plenty of parents out there who love the 9 am Sesame Street time. Stay-at-home parents, parents with different work schedules, home day cares, etc. Well, good for them. It doesn't work for me, thank you very much, and I would like to know who they consulted before making this change. Probably no one who has children who actually watch these shows. So much for "public" television. This member of the "public" is pissed.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

My daughter is ticked about that one, too. It has totally messed up her and the grandbaby's morning schedule. And it doesn't seem any kids that age watch what they have replaced it with.

Anonymous said...

They did this to my kid, in September, when he was a few years younger.

Do you have a DVR or TIVO? Then you wouldnt' be a slave to WTVP's schedule.

Anonymous said...

I'm a stay at home mom and it pissed me off. What the damn change? If it ain't broke, why try to fix it?!?

Anonymous said...

It's not just WTVP either! Nick swiched it's 6:30 am programing from the Backyardigans to the, personally not as appropriate for a 7 AND 4 year old, Jimmy Neutron!!!! WHY WHY WHY!!! Now I will be forced to DVR a more appropriate show as I would like for my children to stay as young as possible for as long as possible!!! My guess is these stations think that Sesame Street kids suddenly start sleeping in when September 1st rolls around????

Anonymous said...

Call them and asked them why they changed it. Maybe no one ever complained.

Tom

Anonymous said...

Here is an email exchange from WTVP.

Hi Linda,

I just wanted to say that my kids (age 5 & 3) are not happy with Sesame Street being moving from the 7 o'clock hour and they would appreciate it if it was moved back.

Thank you,

Josh


Josh, thanks for your comments. Changing the children’s schedule is the hardest thing we have to do. Kids and their caregivers get accustomed to the schedule and it’s always traumatic when it has to change. Please apologize to them for me and tell them that unfortunately there’s nothing I can do about it.

I do hope they enjoy the new shows like Martha Speaks and Sid the Science Kid.



There will be a lot of changing around through the next few months as we make the conversion to digital broadcasting. We are looking at shuffling our channel lineups, and hopefully there will be additional children’s shows and better times for favorite shows.



Linda


I'm sorry, Linda, but I don't follow the nothing can be done about it when that statement is followed by you're thinking about shuffling your channel lineup. Either way, they are not happy and you loss a couple viewers.

Thank you for your quick reply,

Josh


All stations are in a major transition now from analog broadcasting to digital, which officially happens Feb. 18, 2009. We are currently running parallel systems and are in the process of merging some channels. For instance, on WTVP digital 47.2 we now run an HD service – high definition programming only. That service ends November 1, at which time it is anticipated that most HD programming will be integrated with the “regular” channel lineup. There are currently kids programs there that don’t run on analog and digital 47.1. We will keep three digital channels and will have to decide what goes where. How the programs are shuffled will depend on a number of things, including where channels will physically end up on cable. Some cable systems haven’t determined placement yet, which makes it hard to make specific plans at this point. You don’t want to put a children’s lineup where nobody can find it. This is all unfolding as we speak and is very complicated.



I’m sure that’s way more than you want to know, but the point is that all of these programming decisions are difficult. We don’t take them lightly. For more information on the digital transition you can visit www.wtvp.org and link to the national sites, or go to www.dtv.gov or www.dtvanswers.com.



Linda

Ms. PH said...

I also emailed WTVP and got a similar response.

Here is my email.

Dear WTVP -

I have been a life long supporter of public television, particularly children's programming on public television. My children, ages 21 months and 3 years, don't watch much TV, but when they do, they watch public television. Specifically, they watch Sesame Street.

For this reason, they (and I) were very upset that WTVP changed its weekday morning programming and moved Sesame Street from 7 am to 9 am. I am a single mother and we leave the house every morning at 8:15 and having Sesame Street on at 7 am (although we didn't watch until 7:30) was very helpful to our schedule and loved by my kids. Now the shows that are on at 7:30 and 8 am are not appropriate for preschool aged children. This is the age group that is most likely to be watching television at this time as older school-aged children are on their way to school.

So, why move Sesame Street? I have talked to many other parents who are irritated by this move and wondered the reasons behind it.

If you consider input from the public, which you should because this is a public television station, please consider this input. Move Sesame Street back to 7 am.

Thank you.

This is the response I got:

[T]hank you for your thoughtful comments. Every time the children’s schedule is adjusted it means trauma for everyone. As we move from analog broadcasting to digital, schedules are being adjusted and satellite feed times are changing. Where we used to have four children’s feeds, as of September 1 we have only one. What I hope to do when our three digital channels are available to everyone (Feb. 18, 2008) is to shift programs so that there will be a bigger block of kids programming, and then there will hopefully be more flexibility.

In the meantime, I’m sorry the new times don’t work out for you, and the best that I can suggest is that if you have a VCR or DVR, you could record the shows and the kids could watch them when convenient.

I hope this helps, and again, thanks for the input.

Linda Miller

I understand they can't make everyone happy. I'm not sure I understand the technology part of it (i.e., I don't know what feeds have to do with anything) but I am frustrated by this change.

Also, I don't buy their reasons, either given to me or to Josh, primarily because I know they have made this Sesame Street switch in the past, also in September. I can't imagine the "feeds" issue or the analog/digital issue caused it the last time too.

Anyway, I didn't reply to her email because I have other brick walls to beat my head against today - like the Animal Control Officer madness. I can only have so many rants/complaints going on at one time.

Anonymous said...

causal tkus found redo patrick truthful quilts holton retrospect invoke impermanent
lolikneri havaqatsu