Tuning Into Kids : Entertainment: When it comes to music, children have often been overlooked. But soon they’ll have more recordings to choose from and even a radio network.

Their favorite albums rarely make the charts, but children are now getting plenty of attention from the music industry.

Walt Disney Co., a Wisconsin book publisher and a Cleveland broadcaster are making new forays into children’s music, challenging the market’s domination by A&M; Records:

* Walt Disney Records early this year hired the director of children’s marketing at A&M.; As vice president, Mark Jaffe will develop new artists for Disney’s 33-year-old children’s label.

* In March, Metroplex Communications Inc. introduced what appears to be the first full-time children’s radio network in the United States.

* Western Publishing Co. has launched Golden Label records and joined the rush to market standards like “Baa, Baa Black Sheep,” as well as more modern tunes, to the nation’s 40 million children age 10 or younger.

“Children’s music has always been an afterthought for the major record companies and distributors,” said George P. Oess, vice president of business development of Western Publishing, a major publisher of children’s books and cassettes in Racine, Wis. “Now children’s records are starting to become a major area.”

James McNeal, a Texas A&M; University marketing professor, estimates that children receive more than $4.5 billion in allowance money yearly from their parents and influence $50 billion more in household spending. But record industry experts say children’s recordings account for less than 3% of the $6.5 billion in annual U.S. record sales.

Still, the category has recently drawn more interest from some record companies as the music industry seeks to cultivate new customers to replace the nation’s 76 million baby boomers, who are well into middle age and struggling with the cost of raising families.

Children’s music sales are helped by the popularity of cassette tapes--which now make up more than half of all prerecorded music sales--as well as the popularity of cable TV programs aimed at families.

Oess, whose Golden Label records venture was started in January, explained that “cassettes are more user friendly” for children because they are easier to handle and more portable than vinyl LPs, which scratch easily.

Likewise, cable television networks such as the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon have helped provide exposure for a number of popular children’s artists as well as records such as Disney’s “Little Mermaid” soundtrack, which has sold nearly 2 million copies and in March won Academy Awards for best original score and original song.

Sales numbers are clearly on the rise. McNeal, who has studied the consumer habits of children since 1968, said a 1985 survey showed “barely noticeable” spending on consumer electronics, music and related items for children--less than $40 million. But a survey last year of 1,330 children ages 4 to 12 showed spending of $264 million.

A&M; Records, whose pop artists include Sting and Janet Jackson, is credited with pioneering the modern children’s music market in the United States in the mid-1980s by promoting a handful of Canadian folk singers who had carved a niche in their country singing to children.

A&M; is the label of the current star of the children’s music business--Canadian folk singer Raffi Cavoukian, who since 1976 has recorded eight albums, which have sold more than 4 million copies in the United States.

But industry executives say more than 50 other artists make a living singing to children, including Golden Label recording artist David Jack of Los Angeles and Frank Capelli, who once owned a Pittsburgh, Pa., singing telegram company.

By selling children’s albums and cassettes for $9.98, rather than the $4 to $8 charged by many other children’s labels, companies such as A&M; and Disney have collected extra revenue that provides artists the kind of marketing and concert tour support usually reserved for big pop superstars.

“We came along when the economy was good and there was no resistance” to higher-priced albums, said A&M; artist Louis Lilienstein, of the Toronto-based Sharon, Louis & Bram trio. Parents, she said, are spending more on children’s music because they have been encouraged by its variety. Today, she said, parents aren’t just limited to bargain-basement albums “with 50 zillion songs like ‘Puff the Magic Dragon,’ sung by the Do-Re-Me choir.”

David Steffen, senior vice president for sales and distribution at A&M;, said the increased interest is evident. “We’ve been in the business for about six years, and children’s records have grown from about 0 to 3 or 4% of our overall business.” A&M; had annual sales last year of $225 million to $300 million, analysts estimate.

But marketing music for children is not without obstacles, experts say.

There is little or no radio airplay of children’s records, and many labels are distributed by small companies, making some recordings tough to find. As a result, many parents stick to traditional fare.

“The only music I buy for my children is educational records like Sesame Street,” said Kathy Walton, 37, who works for a Los Angeles real estate firm. Although her 2-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son enjoy watching the Disney Channel, their musical tastes tend to run toward teen groups such as New Kids on the Block and The Boys.

The children’s record market may receive a lot more visibility with the launch of what promoters are calling the nation’s first children’s radio network. The network, called Kids Choice Broadcast Network, has only one affiliate, WPRD-AM in Orlando. But network officials say they have been contacted by other interested broadcasters in nearly every major market, including Southern California.

“Children represent the largest unserved market in our economy today,” said Norman Wain, president of KCBN and chief executive of Metroplex Communications Inc., a Cleveland broadcasting company that owns 11 radio stations across the United States.

Wain said music will make up about 85% of his network’s programming. The network will also feature so-called interactive games and puzzles in which KCBN listeners can participate by calling a toll-free telephone number. About half a dozen advertisers have signed on so far, Wain said, including fast-food restaurants, an encyclopedia company and even several banks.

In Southern California, meanwhile, Disney plans to nearly double the size of its record staff to about 20 by year-end and expand its efforts to develop new children’s artists rather than focusing solely on recordings tied to Disney movies and cartoon characters.

Disney, whose biggest-selling children’s album, “Mickey Mouse Disco,” was released more than 15 years ago, launched a general music label, Hollywood Records, last year. But, with many key jobs still open at Hollywood Records, it is in the children’s market that the company sees the most immediate prospects.

“Music has always been an integral part of the Disney image,” Jaffe said. “Our whole thrust with the reorganization (of Disney Records) will be to expand the business. To do that, we will have to be more aggressive. But the Disney name makes us quite a formidable competitor.”

In November, Disney launched a multimillion-dollar promotional effort for the “Little Mermaid” soundtrack album that included a TV special on the Disney Channel and 50 million newspaper inserts offering a $1 rebate off the album. It hopes to follow that success with a new child singer that the company recently signed but has kept under wraps.

Jaffe’s replacement at A&M; said he is not worried about Disney’s new aggressiveness.

“The children’s market is only going to expand now that baby boomers have waited to have kids,” said Kevin Delaney, director of children’s marketing at A&M.; What’s more, Delaney added, there is “plenty of room” for new players because “every day, new kids are being born.”

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2. BROWN GIRL IN THE RING

Traditional Chorus: There’s a brown girl in the ring Tra-la-la-la-la There’s a brown girl in the ring Tra-la-la-la-la-la Brown girl in the ring Tra-la-la-la-la She looks like a sugar and a plum Show me a motion... Skip across the ocean... Do the locomotion...

3. THE LITTLE HOUSE

words and music by Joseph Berger, Nick Klonaris

Copyright 1959 by Sanga Music, In.

Used by permission Theirs is a little house, theirs is In a pear tree full of pearses They’re birds, you see, and they live in a tree Where they don’t need ladders or stairses They’re happy and free of careses They never have to run from bearses And pears are free to birds, you see ‘Round the world or any other whereses Theirs is a little house, theirs is With little bird beds and chairses Did you ever hear of any house near As nice a little house as theirs is