Today's Guest: Captain Kangaroo, a.k.a., Bob Keeshan, long-time CBS morning host for children's television   Bob Keeshan, a.k.a., Captain Kangaroo (EDITOR'S NOTE -- Today, June 27, 2016, would have been the 89th birthday of the great CBS-TV children's TV host, Bob Keeshan, better known to the Baby Boomer generation as "Captain Kangaroo." Keeshan passed away in 2004, and I've spent years trying to recover the telephone interview I did with him as a St. Petersburg Times correspondent, published September 19, 1984. I'm pleased to say I finally found it and upgraded the audio quality. You can now read the interview as published or, for the first time ever, listen to our actual conversation. I hope you'll enjoy this classic edition of Mr. Media and share it with your friends and family. -- Bob Andelman) When it comes to children's television, Captain Kangaroo is a man who knows what he's talking about. And what the soft-spoken Captain is discussing these days is the scarcity of quality network programing provided for kids. Captain Kangaroo, a.k.a. Bob Keeshan, will address the subject at a free lecture at the University of South Florida's Cooper Hall auditorium, CPR 103 (College of Arts and Letters, Tampa campus), on Thursday at 8 p.m. He was last here in 1976, taping segments of the program at Busch Gardens. His appearance corresponds to the end of the Captain's nearly 30 years on CBS. The end has been in sight for some time. In January 1982, some CBS affiliates such as Tampa's WTVT-Ch. 13 dropped the weekday morning Captain Kangaroo Show (it was picked up briefly by WFTS Ch. 28). Later that year, CBS Morning News was lengthened and for the first time the Captain could only be seen on Saturday and Sunday mornings. For a short time even the name and format of his show was changed, to the fast-paced Wake Up. UNTIL December, the Captain Kangaroo Show continues on weekend mornings, al­ though it has been unavailable in Tampa Bay for some time. After the first of the year, the future of the Captain, Mr. Greenjeans, Mr. Moose and Grandfather Clock is uncertain. BOB KEESHAN podcast excerpt: "I feel very strongly that I'm able to take that role as advocate and let people know how strongly I feel that society needs to do a better job nurturing people.." "We are searching for a time period on public television, where we hope we will be on Monday to Friday and reach the audience that the program has been designed and produced for over the many years. I think there's a very strong chance," Keeshan said in a recent telephone interview from his New York office. The people involved in making decisions at CBS have displeased Keeshan but he says they are doing "what they have to do. If the FCC didn't tell them they were free to do what they wanted to do, they would make other decisions. But with that unshackling of responsibility, the stockholders have got to get their due, as much money as they possibly can. That's the bottom line. "I might have some strong feelings about the FCC and their doctrinaire feelings about letting the marketplace function and take care of children. God knows the marketplace certainly will take care of children but not the way we expect it to," he adds. "WE'VE BEEN talking to PBS, and they have nothing but enthusiasm for the project. The key factor really is the finding of underwriting for it. Public television is not a very wealthy system. They have a great deal of difficulty financing their operations, especially since (President
 Reagan) has seen fit to veto the latest
appropriation for public television.
They're in difficult straits, so we have
to find corporate underwriting.
We're seeking a far-sighted company
that feels strongly about the future of
the nation to the extent that (the
way) we nurture children through
television is important to the future of the nation," Keeshan says.
If steps are not taken to improve the way children are raised, Keeshan says, "we're going to be in trouble in t