Belated wishes, and why I hate my local stations ;b!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, JAMIE!
I hope you got plenty of cake, ice cream, and presents all around! Any belated birthday wishes? If so, please post here! You should find 4 things on Gaia coming your way very soon, I hope!
I really HATE almost all my local TV stations (i.e. KTCA/TPT, WCCO-TV, KSTP-TV, and KARE-11). What brought this on you may ask? I was up around 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning and surprisingly discovered where KSTP, our local ABC affiliate, HID ABC's Power Rangers all these years after it had 'disappeared' from KSTP's schedule. The %%&%()#&!()&%(#&! programmers at KSTP were airing Power Rangers at the convenient time of 5:30 a.m. Saturday mornings! I haven't been able to find it for years >8(!
Why are they airing it at 5:30 a.m. instead of an actual watchable time, like ABC had programmed it, on Saturday morning from 7:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. CST? Why?! The 'geniuses' at KSTP think, and almost every other local station here, they would get better ratings by airing an hour or more of their fine local news program instead! Both WCCO and KARE do it as well. In order to make room for their 'wonderful' news and other local programs though, they have to cut or reschedule something from the network lineup of Saturday morning programming. Both WCCO and KARE reschedule the hour or more they 'snipped' from the network to air either in the wee hours Sunday morning. KARE airs their 1 hour of cut programming from NBC at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning. WCCO airs their 1 hour of cut programming at a slightly better time at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning. KSTP changes their minds constantly on where to put their cut programming at either in the wee hours of Sunday morning or not at all sometimes >X(! For our local Fox affiliate, KMSP-TV, they show their Fox Saturday morning feed on their sister owned station, WFTC, so KMSP can show 'fine quality' LOCAL news programming too. At least KMSP has an alternative place to air it at a DECENT time.
Whenever I visit another state, I'm so in awe and jealous all their local stations actually keep their Saturday morning lineups INTACT. Why in the heck does MN's stations think local news programs are SO much better than their network's children's television programs?! I THINK I blame KSTP for starting the trend in the first place >=/. Years ago, when the Megamall first opened, KSTP thought it would be 'so awesome' (and a ratings winner) if they did a local variety-type show from the Megamall each week on SATURDAY MORNING. That was the first time a local station here pre-empted normal network Saturday morning programming. I remember calling to complain about that pre-emption and asked what happened to my lost hour. At the time, they told me they would air the pre-empted hour 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning, and I was okay with this arrangement at the time.
That Megamall variety talk show only lasted for less than a year or so, but instead of giving that hour back to ABC's Saturday morning lineup, KSTP 'kept' it for itself and aired an hour of early Saturday morning news instead ;b. As the years went by, the other local stations followed suit, especially after the FCC passed the 3-hours of educational TV for kids every week law. Now, each of the 3 'big' network affiliates had at least 1 hour or more of pre-empted local programming on Saturday morning. At least WCCO and KARE continued to air their pre-empted hour some time during the week. KSTP decided to stop doing so altogether for SEVERAL YEARS until somewhat recently I think. Who knows for sure though, especially given KSTP's fickleness concerning their schedule ;b.
I HATE ALL THIS *%#)!_*%)#*!* LOCAL NEWS PROGRAMMING PRE-EMPTED OR ELIMINATING PART OF MY SATURDAY MORNING PROGRAMS! I don't want to watch your CRAP! I don't care about your CRAP! I want to watch what almost everyone else in this country is able to watch without having to hunt for it! They must be getting better ratings or something to keep all this crap in production. I think the logic behind it is that cable offers kids another place to watch stuff, so why bother airing it if kids are watching elsewhere? On the other hand, how would kids be able to watch stuff you're airing at 5:00 a.m. Saturday or Sunday morning?! Yeah, yeah, you can record it via video, DVR, or TiVo (which actually knows where to look), but for those of us who don't have TiVo or a good TV guide, what are we supposed to do o~O?
Also, KTCA/TPT, you're still on notice for taking Mister Rogers off the air (and replacing it with It's a Big Big World) as well as deciding to air BLECH public TV junk for 1.5 hours that's not on PBS' schedule. PBS, I also HATE you for crunching credits to air in-between fillers with useless Ms. Lori and Hooper the last few years too!
Yes, I still have NOT forgiven WCCO for eliminating Press Your Luck and Pyramid all those years ago in favor of Donahue or banishing Jeopardy! to 1:30 a.m. for several YEARS!
BLAST YOU LOCAL #%*!*%_!* MN CRAP! If I could, I would stage a local coup and takeover ALL the local stations here and re-schedule their programming and create a monopoly the FCC wouldn't like though.
Also, posted by Justin/enfarcer last week, in case you haven't heard, Peanuts animator, and voice of Snoopy and Woodstock, Bill Melendez died last Tuesday, Sep 2nd, at 91 ;_;. I hate this year --;.