KIDSNET BOSS WANTS TO GET WORD OUT

Karen Jaffe knew just the solution for her daughter’s fear of monsters: a “Mister Rogers” videotape entitled “Dinosaurs and Monsters.”

But finding the program wasn’t as easy as walking into the local video store, seeing the tape perched on a shelf and handing the clerk a plastic rental card. To order the tape, store personnel needed to know more than the cassette’s title--such as the distributor of the program and the title number.

That would have stumped most would-be customers--assuming they even knew the tape existed so they could ask for it. But it was no problem for Jaffe. As founder and executive director of KIDSNET, a national research organization that specializes in children’s radio and TV programming, she has access to a generous database of exactly such information.

Sharing it with others is KIDSNET’s goal.

“Our role is to get the word out,” Jaffe said while in Los Angeles recently to recruit new KIDSNET subscribers. “We hear stories from educators who know a program is coming out but have no idea when. And there are some who have no idea that (a certain program) even exists.

“There’s a problem with children’s programs,” Jaffe said. “It’s a ‘Catch-22.’ The industry (whether it’s cable, networks or local stations) feels that it’s not a profitable field, so these shows aren’t scheduled with any continuity, and there’s not a lot of money spent to promote them since it (the industry) doesn’t see a big audience there.

“Our mandate is to bring the audience to the show. If that increases, we (will) see a better audience, and that will spawn better programs.”

KIDSNET concerns itself with programs directed toward preschool- through high school-age children. These can include “Afterschool Specials,” Saturday morning cartoons, evening sitcoms, movies of the week, PBS series, cable programs, radio shows and home-video ware.

Whatever the topic, KIDSNET catalogues what programs have been made, what formats (VHS, beta, audiocassette) are available, when new programs will be available, who produced and directed them and whether supplementary print material is available.

Based in Washington, KIDSNET has information on more than 20,000 programs and public-service announcements. Its active database, a constantly updated collection, focuses on current TV and radio programs, while the archive database deals with older programs available for rebroadcast and non-broadcast uses (cassettes, classrooms), Jaffe said. A home video database is being developed.

The cost for users ranges from yearly fees of $175 for educational, nonprofit subscribers (schools, hospitals, libraries) to $375 for profit-oriented businesses (networks, cable systems) and larger nonprofit associations and government agencies. Charter members, which include the Arts & Entertainment cable network, Home Box Office, Lorimar Telepictures and Nickelodeon, pay a one-time remittance of $10,000.

“We really don’t expect parents to pay these subscription fees,” Jaffe said. “If they want to join, I’d sell to them, but I usually ask them to check with their local school district or library to see if they’re subscribers. Eventually we’d like to get the price down for parents.”

KIDSNET members can request information from Jaffe and her staff (two full-time associates and outside consultants) via electronic mail (any computer with a modem) or an 800 phone number. Searches can be made by subject matter, target age or specific needs, such as multi-ethnic, bilingual, gifted and hearing impaired. Listings also include literary references to books, plays and short stories, as well as program descriptions and copyright requirements.

“Unless the request is lengthy,” Jaffe said, “we can provide an answer within 72 hours. The more knowledgeable the user is about what he is looking for, the more useful we can be.”

“Before KIDSNET, when we had to search for something, we’d pull up a soft chair, open the file door and start looking,” said Carol Lang, a consultant with Regional Education in Television Advisory Council, a Downey-based group that supplies programs for educational use in Southern California. “It was a very time-consuming task.”

Another local member is KCET Channel 28. David L. Crippens, the public-TV station’s vice president of educational enterprises, said that KCET uses KIDSNET’s services frequently. “We’re always looking at ways to service the younger population,” Crippens said.

He added that the station is developing a program on the prevention of adolescent pregnancies and will use KIDSNET to see what related programs have been produced.

“With more parents becoming aware and wanting to make changes (in programming), KIDSNET will become even more of a necessary service,” he predicted.

Further growth is spurred by periodic grants. The most recent donation, $100,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is to assist in adding more evaluative elements (reviews, awards) to the database, Jaffe said.

An original underwriter was the John and Mary Markle Foundation. “Our main concern was to find ways to enable quality programs to be seen by more children,” explained foundation president Lloyd Morrisett.

KIDSNET is the only entity that provides details exclusively on children’s programming, Jaffe said. (The Educational Film Library in New York provides information on films, but is not specifically geared toward children.)

“We were surprised that it hadn’t been done before,” Jaffe said, discussing KIDSNET’s inception in 1985. Prior to that, a pilot program was initiated in Cincinnati, where parents, educators and health and social service professionals utilized KIDSNET’s services.

The major difference then was that users searched KIDSNET’s database themselves, whereas now, KIDSNET does the searching off-line, then forwards the printed information to the subscriber.

“No one wanted to do the searching,” said Jaffe. That method also was more expensive than the one employed now, she added.