I am posting this because I care about Saturday morning programming because I grew up on it and there is so few this days. Thankfully they have brought back blocks like Kewlopolis on CBS (started 2007), Qubo on NBC (Started 2006), ABC Kids (which has remained strong) and of course the newly minted CW 4Kids.I decided to write down the history of what was FOX Kids and now is CW 4Kids in some way in South Florida. I live in Miami.
The FOX network started their kid's block in 1990 with such classics as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series, Bobby's World, Peter Pan and the Pirates, and Tom and Jerry Kids Show. This all aired on local WSVN channel 7 of FOX.
They were all joined by Batman: The Animated series, Animaniacs, Taz-Mania, Tiny Toon Adventures, Eek! The Cat, and the Power Rangers.
When the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers hit in 1993, local independent channel WDZL 39 (which is now CW South Florida) took the FOX Kids weekday block. Airing in the morning from 7 to 9am and then in the afternoon 3 (or 2 not sure)-5:30pm. This was a natural move for 39 since they already aired Tiny Toon Adventures since 1990, because the Tiny Toons was syndicated until 1992. WSVN decided to let go FOX Kids by the end of 1993 and WDZL took it for Saturdays as well. WSVN was the first Fox affiliate not to take Fox Kids.
When WDZL became WBZL for the WB in fall of 1997, a new local channel WAMI 69 took over Fox Kids. While channel 39 put their own bumpers and promos in place of Fox Kids ones for a while, they stop doing so by 1997 and WAMI didn't bother doing so, so sometimes some FOX ads would air on WAMI as well. By the year 2002, WAMI was over and so was Fox Kids for South Florida. By 2003, Fox Kids completely be gone and became the Fox Box, which incidentally was picked up by WBFS UPN 33, which is now My 33. Fox Box became 4KidsTV and now has become CW 4Kids. Funny enough, Fox Box had no programming from Fox Kids, most of the Fox Kids programming went to ABC Family which aired Power Rangers, Digimon and other old Fox Kids cartoons (including some Disney and Kids' WB ones like Gargoyles and Jackie Chan Adventures) from 2002 to 2005. That is when Jetix was born, in 2006 Jetix stayed permanently on Toon Disney and left ABC Family all together.
Fox Kids had ended because of this: Haim Saban created the Power Rangers and eventually owned and got share to Fox Kids. When he was doing liquidation in 2001, he sold his share which as the Power Rangers, Fox Kids, and the Fox Family channel (which was the Family Channel) to Disney. Hence, Fox Family became ABC Family and Fox Kids was no more. Besides, FOX affiliates wanted to do more news on Saturday mornings and didn't want cartoons no more.
Very confusing, even for an adult.
