Sunday, May 24, 2009

weekday schedule

It's impossible to give an accurate daily schedule, as most shows were not on every week at the same time, but this is roughly how the average day of programming went:

5pm: KTOD Sign-on ("Get low with the toad") and "inspirational" message from the General Manager, who only went by "Mr. Mike". Mr. Mike would talk for about five minutes about whatever was floating around the back of his brain that day, often stopping cold and staring blankly at the camera in a rigor of confusion, then instantly moving right back into his spiel. Would occasionally announce lineup changes, though his announcements were often inaccurate and occasionally spoke of shows which had never aired. I always suspected Mr. Mike was the same person who played Frater Dismalismus, the host of Terrorvision.

5:05-5:20pm: this wasn't actually a show so much as a kind of junk drawer for upcoming trailers and ads for shows plus short music clips -- not videos in the MTV sense but bits from older documentaries and occasional songs overlaid with random quasi-arty film of empty fields and rivers and such.

5:20-5:30pm: Community Voice -- this is where people could come up to the studio and basically spout off about whatever for ten minutes, like a letters to the editor kind of deal. I don't remember too much about this.

5:30-7pm: The Early Movie -- no host for this one, and these were usually more weird Bummerism kid's movies or nature films or old serials.

7-10pm: This was the block of shows, and these were different every day.

10-10:30pm: "The Chinese Show" is what I always called it, but I'm pretty sure it was an adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This played every day at this time, and I never saw the same episode twice. There were great action sequences and creepy-looking wizards who shot fireworks out of their sleeves and elaborately dressed princesses who would sing about remaining chaste or something.

10:30-11pm: Dark Shadows -- dude, you know, Dark Shadows! This played every day as well. Extra confusing because they weren't always played in order.

11-12pm: Subliminal Television -- locally made sketch comedy...well, comedy might not be the right word, because it wasn't really *funny*, exactly. It's more like they wanted to actually make their own versions of the stuff they played the rest of the time, so they'd have recurring shows like Rex Sebastian Supernatural Detective and The Morally Misguided Adventures of Captain Steele and Bobcat Bob beside more traditional parody fare like The Evening News of Doom. Occasionally they'd play chunks from some rock festival or just ad-lib. Pretty heavily influenced by Firesign Theatre/National Lampoon/Congress of Wonders/The Committee.

12-2am: Terrorvision -- horror/monster/unsettling art films with your host Frater Dismalismus, who stuck more the the "debauched beatnik" role model of the Creature Feature set than the "corny Dracula", thankfully.

2-5am: Late Movie, which was usually two movies, or a combination of chopped television shows (I remember seeing episodes of The Sixth Sense and Night Gallery a few times) . Lots of vaguely titilating arthouse movies or vaguely underground comedies. No host, but you'd occasionally get voiceovers from whoever was at the station during bumpers making obscure jokes and giggling.

5am: KTOD Signoff -- a 50s black and white signoff clip with the usual icons (eagles flying, happy schoolchildren, the American flag) only played at half speed and upside down. I remember it used to really creep me out, and so I'd dare myself to stay up that late just so I could see it. Occasionally other gibberish before it clipped back to PBS.

Weekends were a bit different.

1 comment:

  1. Dark Shadows! I remember being tiny and watching one of the witches hang in the past and her future doppelganger die as well. A very important moment in my life, I think.

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