Kentucky’s KET Dropping Weekdays03 Aug
We’ve just brought you good news from Texas. Now for some bad news for those of you in the Bluegrass State. KET, serving Kentucky and adjacent areas in seven contiguous states, plans to remove the Neighborhood from their Monday through Friday schedule in September. It would air only on Sunday mornings at 7AM.
The situation at KET, as we understand it, is not so much about a lack of desire to keep the Neighborhood program on the air, but a lack of resources to do so. Here’s part of an email we received from (the very kind) Misty Adams, KET programming assistant:
It has been suggested that KET pre-record all the episodes of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood in advance and play them back over the next season. This would require thousands of dollars in videotape costs as well as many personnel hours and, due to recent budget cuts in the state of Kentucky, we are not able to take that on.
As I told Misty in my response, we are gravely disappointed to hear that the lives of children in KET’s viewing area will no longer be touched by Mister Rogers each weekday. But we do empathize somewhat with local member stations who simply do not have the resources to make it happen — PBS’s decision has put them in a tough spot.
We do not think it’s an overstatement to say that this marketplace-fueled decision will be detrimental to child development in our nation. We will continue to advocate for deep, simple, and nurturing children’s television programming on *our* airwaves in Kentucky and elsewhere.
Finally, if you are a KET viewer, we encourage you to express your support for continued weekday airings of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Contact KET Executive Director, Malcolm Wall at mwall@ket.org. You might also want to consider putting your money where your mouth is and writing them a check.
- Brian
Please continue all efforts to keep Mr. Rogers on the air!
Brian,
One thing I would encourage people to do is to contact ALL the PBS stations that service their area. I contacted WETA (greater Washington, DC area) last week and received the good news that “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” will continue to be broadcast five days a week.
This afternoon I contacted WCVE, which services central Virginia. Since their programming also reaches me, I wanted to know what their plans were. There may be others out there who receive programming from several PBS stations. I just wanted to encourage them to knock on the doors (even if through email) of them all!
Amy
I encourage you not to drop Mr. Rodgers. I am 64 years of age and several of my family members have watched Mr. Rodgers for years. His messages are timeless and even though some of the videos he shows may be dated, it is always so interesting to see how so many things were made and are still being made today, the different countries and peoples, and many other diffent subjects being shown. It was great when Mr. Rodgers used his imagination for his village where the trolley car would go. It was always explained that it was an imaginary village where the king was. children do not know today what an imagination is. Today I am keeping my great nephew who is 2 years of age and he loves Mr. Rodgers and keeps asking me where is Mr. Rodgers. I do not have an answer for him. The greatest thing about Mr. Rodgers is the fact that he uses real music on his program and it is so calming and the program does not always have to have animated loud characters. He talks with real people such as those who are musicans and they show musical instruments. Conversation between reap people that are talking and not just jumping, playing loud music and being rude is such a relief. Please reconsider and keep Mr. Rodgers on for a long long long time.
Thank you
Mary Kellen
I suggest a KET evening of fund raising to raise needed funds to download and pay for the program. I am 65 years old and have been watching Mr. Rogers since the 1960’s.
He is such an excellent example of the kindness that
our children need but do not receive from most of us adults.
Let’s work to keep Mr. Rogers around.